Chapter 78 Food War
Bandon Island.
There is a small port on the west side of the island with a specially designed underwater channel. At a depth of about 35 meters, there is an underwater platform made of coral cement .
Bluefish 001 slowly moored on the platform, and then a connecting cabin rose from under the platform and inserted into the bottom of Bluefish 001. Then the connecting cabin began to drain the water inside to test whether the channel was leaking.
After confirming that there was no water leakage, Xu Yingming, escorted by soldiers, entered the bottom transportation compartment of Bluefish 001.
The two gates between the transportation cabin and the connection cabin are opened, and the capsule elevator inside the transportation cabin slides down at a constant speed.
This capsule elevator is not pulled by cables, but uses gears to move up and down. It has considerable power and can withstand water pressure at a depth of hundreds of meters.
The capsule elevator came down from Bluefish 001, moved down 18 meters, and entered the watertight exchange cabin, and then the two gates above were closed one by one.
After coming out of the capsule elevator, Xu Yingming was taken to the underground transportation cabin and took a tram to the interior of the island.
Bandon Island is Li Qingye’s core scientific research base and also the area where the main body is located, so it is naturally strictly guarded.
Even Xu Yingming didn't know where the island was. After all, the soldiers only told him that it was called "Spider's Nest Base."
The submarine was sailing under the sea again, and there was no reference point to be seen. He was not even qualified to enter the submarine cockpit and could only stay in a specific passenger cabin.
As for communicators and the like on your body, you are not allowed to bring them in, and even the clothes you change into must be prepared by the Internal Affairs Department.
Inside the underground base on Bandon Island.
When Xu Yingming arrived at the conference hall, there were other people present.
The web managers present included Harry Fernando, Cavendish Lopez, Chen Jianxiong, Mike Duter (Dute family), Sun Yaozu (Tusun family), and Ovi (Luzon Navy Rear Admiral).
These people are the core members of the Luzon branch.
Xu Yingming was once again secretly shocked by the strength of Zhiren Company.
Philip walked out from the side door and said as he walked: "Dear colleagues, let us welcome the boss with the warmest applause."
Snap, snap, snap…
Li Qingye smiled and waved his hand: "Okay, everyone take a seat."
Everyone sat down in turn, their expressions very serious.
"The purpose of holding this meeting today is, on the one hand, to allow everyone to get to know each other. We will all be colleagues in the future, so as to avoid accidentally hurting one of our own."
He then said: "On the other hand, it is to cope with the upcoming food crisis."
Food crisis? Xu Yingming didn't pay attention to this matter. Suddenly, he remembered that the Aquino family asked them to sell the rice and corn as soon as possible.
Chen Jianxiong stood up and came to the mural on the left, holding a device similar to a mobile phone in his hand. After pressing a few switches, the mural immediately turned into a large screen.
"This is the intelligence our security department has collected in Manila, Sing Tao and New York. ABCD has noticed that we are expanding the rice planting area in Luzon. They are planning to hold a secret meeting to discuss the food price issue in Southeast Asia. The Marcus family and the Aquino family have both received invitations. They are planning to use the same old trick again."
Documents were displayed one by one on the big screen.
Chen Jianxiong continued, "In addition, ABCD has also contacted a number of fertilizer and pesticide companies, including 17 fertilizer and pesticide manufacturers such as Bayer, Dow, DuPont, Maple Leaf Potash, and BASF, and will use various excuses to push up the prices of fertilizers, pesticides, and agricultural machinery in Southeast Asia."
The increase in the prices of pesticides and fertilizers will obviously further increase the food production costs of farmers in Luzon, forcing them to turn to cash crops with higher added value.
"In addition, eight international companies, including United Fruit, will gradually increase the purchase prices of some agricultural products in the near future, including bananas, pineapples, sugar cane, mangosteens, wax apples, etc."
"Everyone saw it." Li Qingye said calmly.
As members of a large family who had once cooperated with ABCD to plunder Luzon, Harry, Cavendish, Xu Yingming, and Sun Yaozu naturally understood ABCD's three tricks.
Even though doing so will cause ABCD to suffer short-term losses, once they successfully destroy Luzon's food self-sufficiency plan, Luzon will be like a dish and they can eat it however they want.
This is because Luzon's food gap is as high as 7 to 8 million tons, and there are actually not many food producers in the world that can supply this amount.
There is also a big problem with Luzon's eating habits, which is that rice is the main food, while corn and flour are only supplementary foods.
Currently, the world's largest rice exporter is India, which exports about 11 to 12 million tons of rice each year; the second is Siam, with annual exports of about 6 to 8 million tons; and the third is Annan, with annual exports of about 4 to 6 million tons.
Next is America, with an annual export volume of about 5 million tons; Pakistan is around 3 million tons; followed by Hongsavadi, which can export about 2.5 million tons.
Even though the combined export volumes of these regions total 31.5 million to 36.5 million tons.
The problem is that a lot of this rice has already been ordered. If there is a sudden increase in orders, it would be fine for a few hundred thousand tons, but once the demand exceeds one million tons, it would be difficult to get spot goods for a while.
In order to ensure the food supply for 100 million people, it would be difficult to resist the fluctuations in international food prices without a stockpile of 20 to 30 million tons of rice, and Luzon does not have enough national reserve grain.
Of course, the three-pronged approach of ABCD will not work immediately. To complete the entire plan, they will need at least one or two quarters to reap the rewards.
"Boss, Xu's warehouse still has 240,000 tons of rice and 360,000 tons of corn kernels stored." Xu Yingming was the first to stand up and express his loyalty.
In fact, there is a lot of grain stored in the warehouses of each big family.
Li Qingye smiled and said, "Well, I will let Garfield take the lead and set up a secret civil organization called the Luzon Food Security Association to centrally control the food we have. Doesn't ABCD want to play? We will play with them."
Everyone checked the accounts.
Currently, they have 6.27 million tons of rice, 8.36 million tons of corn kernels, 1.33 million tons of wheat flour, and 420,000 tons of seaweed starch.
In addition, another alias of the Zhiren Company, the Aoba Group, also controls large farms and plantations in Hongsawadi, and has rice reserves of about 820,000 tons.
Before the end of the year, after the rice is harvested in various places, another 2 to 3 million tons of rice and 3 to 4 million tons of corn will be stored in warehouses .
Fighting a food war?
ABCD can only bully those fragmented comprador countries. Their methods may not work when they encounter highly centralized countries that have sufficient arable land.
The Luzon Food Security Association planned by Li Qingye will plan to increase Luzon's total food reserves to 30 million tons in the next three years, including 15 million tons of rice, 3 million tons of wheat, and 12 million tons of corn.
As for where the stored food comes from.
It was very simple. Aren't AB CD going to fight a food war in Southeast Asia? Then Li Qingye asked Fernando and other families to take the opportunity to purchase these low-priced rice, wheat and corn under the guise of a vest.
As for the fact that farmers in Luzon are unwilling to grow rice, this is not something that ABCD can directly control.
In the area controlled by the Homo Sapiens Company, what the landlords and farmers want to plant must be approved by the Agricultural Cooperative. It is not the case that farmers can change their crops at will just because the cash crops have high returns.
Otherwise, the Sapiens company will let them know what an iron fist is and ensure that they won’t even be able to transport agricultural products out of the local area.
After all, the local ports, shipping, roads and railways are all controlled by the Homo Sapiens company behind the scenes. No matter how high the purchase price is, it is only useful if the goods can be transported out.
