The young girl stared blankly at the man in front of her, feeling dizzy and disoriented. The man's voice seemed to fluctuate, becoming louder and softer, and she couldn't understand why this man was being so kind to her. She, a woman who was regarded as a monster in her village, even causing children to spit at her, why was this man not repulsed by her and treated her so well?
Lu Weimin also noticed that the girl seemed to be in a daze, her eyes filled with a mixture of confusion and something he couldn't quite understand. "Shi Mei, Shi Mei! What's wrong with you?"
With a "thud," the girl suddenly knelt before Lu Weimin, hugging his knees and sobbing silently. Her tears quickly soaked through his pants. "Brother Lu, why are you so good to me? Why?"
After being startled, Lu Weimin quickly reacted. He gently helped the girl to her feet and had her sit back on the stool. "Shi Mei, what are you doing? What have I done? I've already said that for me, it's just a small favor. You don't need to do this. People need to respect themselves, value themselves, and cherish themselves. You have many decades ahead of you, and life is still beautiful. There's no need to be overwhelmed by setbacks. As they say, without experiencing the storm, how can you see the rainbow? I believe you can find your own beautiful tomorrow."
In the morning, after sending Shi Mei away, Lu Weimin called Zhen Ni in advance, asking her to help arrange something for Shi Mei, to see if she could find her a job.
Shi Mei was a hardworking girl, and after going through these twists and turns, Lu Weimin believed she could emerge from the shadows of her past.
Returning from Baita, it was already past 5 PM. The round trip took two hours, leaving Lu Weimin drenched in sweat.
Lu Weimin deeply felt the impact of the inconvenient transportation of this era. A distance of over twenty kilometers, from waiting for the bus to reaching the destination, took at least an hour. A round trip took two hours. In his previous life, with a car, it would have taken only an hour, which was efficiency.
After three days, Lu Weimin had basically figured out the area of kiwi fruit planted in the county, which was approximately 1,820 mu. However, in the Baita area, about 200 mu were planted in the second year, with seedlings provided by the provincial agricultural department to the Baita area, and they would not bear fruit until next year. Therefore, the area that would bear fruit this year was not much different from the previous estimate.
After estimating the yield of each kiwi fruit plant with the staff from the county agricultural bureau and the agricultural research station, they predicted that the yield per mu could reach about 250 kilograms. This meant that the kiwi fruit production in Nantang this year might exceed 350,000 kilograms, reaching around 400,000 kilograms. This huge quantity shocked the officials from the agricultural bureau who were involved in the investigation.
After obtaining the actual situation, Zhou Yuming was also shocked, especially after Lu Weimin conducted a survey of the local fruit markets in Nantang and Liyang and presented a report. Zhou Yuming was even more alarmed.
The 1,620 mu of kiwi fruit involved nearly 400 households in two districts and five towns, with a production of 400,000 kilograms. The key issue was that the local fruit market survey results were extremely severe. There was no habit of consuming kiwi fruit in the local market, which meant that the 400,000 kilograms of kiwi fruit had not yet found a sales channel. The farmers believed that the kiwi fruit would sell easily in Liyang, Nantang, and Changzhou, and could even fetch a good price, which made Zhou Yuming draw a deep breath.
If all the farmers held this belief, and their great hopes turned into disappointment or even despair, who could predict what would happen?
"Xiao Lu, your meaning is that these farmers have not sought out sales channels themselves but believe that the county and township will help them find one. And the feedback from the Liyang and Nantang fruit markets is not good?" Zhou Yuming was really getting anxious. At first, he thought Shen Zilie was making a fuss over nothing, but the situation turned out to be so severe.
"Director Zhou, to be honest, it's not just bad; there is no acceptance in the Liyang and Nantang local markets. The people in Liyang and the county have no habit of eating kiwi fruit. If the 400,000 kilograms of kiwi fruit are to be sold in Liyang and Nantang, it's basically impossible, and even 10,000 kilograms or 1,000 kilograms might not be sold." Lu Weimin's face was solemn, and his tone was serious. "I tried to contact the fruit vendors in Liyang, and after much persuasion, they agreed to take 300 to 500 kilograms as a trial, and they said they would only pay after selling them."
"300 to 500 kilograms?! What can we do?" Zhou Yuming was really getting anxious, his gaze falling on the deputy director of the commerce bureau, Old Qin. "Old Qin, do you have any channels..."
"Director Zhou, we also contacted the provincial and other cities through the regional commerce bureau, but they said that there is no consumption habit for kiwi fruit among the inland people, and it's impossible to sell through state-owned channels. Changzhou has imported kiwi fruit from New Zealand, but the quantities are very small, and this fruit is not easy to store, so large-scale purchases are impossible." Old Qin looked helpless. "Perhaps only the people in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai have this consumption habit, but not in our province."
"Is there a channel through processing companies?" Zhou Yuming thought for a moment.
"That might also be difficult. Kiwi fruit is not often eaten fresh, and processing companies may have never processed kiwi fruit. There is no one willing to take the risk, and the time is too short to make it happen." Old Qin shook his head repeatedly.
Seeing that Old Qu from the agricultural bureau was silent, Zhou Yuming knew it was unrealistic to expect any ideas from the agricultural bureau. So he asked directly, "Xiao Lu, do you have any good ideas?"
"Director Zhou, I don't have a good idea, but the problem we face is urgent, and we need to try anything. We estimate that the kiwi fruit will start to be harvested in about twenty days, so we must find a sales channel within these twenty days." Lu Weimin knew that this was not the time to be modest and that he had to take the responsibility.
"Old Qin mentioned that state-owned channels cannot solve the problem. As I understand it, individual wholesalers dominate the fruit market in Changzhou. I think we can proactively seek out these individual vendors in Changzhou to see if we can persuade them to take part of the load. This is the first approach, but to make it work, we need to use other means. Since the acceptance of kiwi fruit is still low, we can promote it, for example, by advertising on provincial TV or distributing promotional materials to highlight the rich nutrition of kiwi fruit and the connection between our Nantang kiwi fruit and New Zealand kiwi fruit. This can increase the visibility of our Nantang kiwi fruit and help expand sales channels."
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