The Sea Queen of 1985

Chapter 472: Chapter 472: Guidance

Han Xiaorui took out a notebook. It listed all the customers who had purchased fish fry from her. She was helping these farmers find their own customers and sell at a good price.

”These are all the farmers who buy fish fry and feed from us. The first ten are from Shencheng and the surrounding areas. The rest are from Zhejiang Province and Fujian Province, which are a bit far.”

Hearing this, Boss Li took the notebook and looked it over. ”Could I make a copy of this?”

Han Xiaorui took out paper and a pen. ”Of course! The sooner you have the list, the sooner you can go check them out.”

Boss Li smiled. ”We’re all desperate right now. As long as the taste is good, price is no object!”

Han Xiaorui took a piece of chalk and copied the list onto her daughter’s little blackboard.

It included not just their names, but also their addresses and phone numbers.

After Boss Li finished copying the list, he immediately took his leave from Han Xiaorui.

Watching them leave, Han Xiaorui smiled.

’After this year’s scramble for farmed seafood, the Jinshan Bay Fish Seed Breeding Base is bound to become even more famous.’

’Everyone’s farming seafood, so why are the prices for yours so high?’

’It’s because the fish fry and feed are different, so the seafood tastes different!’

This was the source of Han Xiaorui’s confidence.

That was why, before the fishing moratorium, Han Xiaorui had already informed everyone that the prices would be higher than those for ordinary farmed seafood.

At the time, everyone had thought they wouldn’t be able to sell anything. But now, with buyers coming straight to their doors, how could they possibly worry about sales?

Just as Han Xiaorui had predicted, three fish farmers arrived at her home a little after four in the afternoon.

”Boss Han, you have to sell me some of your fish fry this year,” Li Ming said excitedly. He had originally thought his products would be difficult to sell.

But after the buyers came and tasted the farmed seafood, they immediately offered an unexpectedly high price.

Han Xiaorui smiled. ”So those buyers went to see you?”

Li Ming nodded. ”They did. Thank you for the introduction, Boss Han. It really opened up a sales channel for our seafood. By the way, I used fry from two different suppliers on my farm. I steamed fish from both batches, but the ones from the fry I bought from you tasted much better.”

”The feed you sell was a bit expensive, but considering the prices we’re getting now, I’d say it was worth every penny. We even had the seafood tested. Its nutritional content is close to that of wild-caught fish, which is incredibly rare. This is a real blessing for all us farmers.”

Li Ming was planning to use fry from Jinshan Bay for all his aquaculture products from now on.

Han Xiaorui smiled. ”Thank you all for your faith in our Jinshan Bay fry. However, I need to be upfront about something. We really don’t have that many fry to go around. On top of that, the Maritime Affairs Department has designated our high-quality fry as a priority for promotion.”

”So, I can only promise to let you order up to thirty percent more fry than you did last year. I simply don’t have any more than that, so I hope you can understand. However, we’re already trying our best to expand. We’ll definitely increase our production as soon as possible, and I’ll do my best to prioritize your orders.”

Hearing this, Li Ming and the others anxiously scratched their heads. ”Boss Han, a thirty-percent increase is a little low. How about double? We’re making good money and want to expand our farms. If we raise high-quality stock, we can sell it at a premium and recoup our investment faster.”

”That’s right, Boss Han. Your fry are really something else. They don’t get sick easily, and by using your feed, we’ve hardly needed any medication. The fry stay healthy and grow well. It’s such a load off our minds.”

After all, when fish fry get sick, you have to spend money on treatment.

Saving that money really adds up.

Although the feed was a bit more expensive, it saved on medication costs.

All things considered, the cost increase wasn’t that much.

And compared to the high prices we’re getting, it’s nothing.

Due to their strong insistence, Han Xiaorui agreed they could purchase forty percent more fry than the previous year, or 1.4 times the amount.

This was what they had fought so hard for, and they were very satisfied with this result.

They rushed back to prepare for transporting the fry.

They were afraid that if they delayed, someone else would buy up all the fry.

The fry were still small and didn’t require much space. As their current stock of seafood was sold off during the fishing moratorium, they could gradually free up their rearing tanks.

With careful planning, they wouldn’t miss the rapid summer growth period.

In what seemed like no time, Shencheng’s entire aquaculture industry began to boom.

Seafood raised from fry purchased from Jinshan Bay, in particular, became a hot commodity.

Farmers in other coastal provinces who had bought fry the previous year tasted the results this year and naturally discovered how special it was.

Even more people came to Jinshan Bay to buy fish fry.

Chen Yupeng had recently received instructions from his superior to contact the maritime departments of neighboring provinces and cities, mostly concerning the issue of fish fry.

’He used to be idle, feeling like he had nothing to do.’

Now he was so busy he was run off his feet. It was a bit tiring, but he felt very fulfilled.

He had finally managed to allocate this year’s supply of fry. The money was already in, even before the fry were delivered.

Thanks to these fish fry, the Shencheng Maritime Affairs Department had become a standard-bearer for coastal aquaculture. It earned praise from higher leadership, who proposed that other regions learn from Shencheng’s example.

Education, research, and the market had become tightly integrated.

The goal was to ensure that research outcomes could be brought to market to generate income for the people, which could then, in turn, better support further education and research.

Professor Wang and Professor Li were also highly commended for their outstanding research achievements.

Seeing that Chen Yupeng had handled things well, his superior gave him another task. ”Xiao Chen, the Jinshan Bay Fish Seed Breeding Base is still too small! You know President Han well. Why don’t you go ask her if she can expand the scale of her operation?”

Chen Yupeng smiled and asked, ”Sir, the fry have all been allocated. Surely you’re not still getting calls about it, are you?”

Leader Wang shook his head with a wry smile. ”Calls? It’s much more than that. My old classmates, former colleagues, and old army buddies are practically blocking my door. They’re saying if I couldn’t get them an allocation this year, I’d better get them one next year, or they’ll cut ties with me.”

Leader Wang never expected that his once-quiet office, a veritable government backwater, would become such a hot spot all because of the mandatory fishing moratorium.

The Jinshan Bay fry, in particular, had brought him a great deal of credit.

High-quality fry produced high-quality seafood, which could fill the gap in the market during the fishing ban and satisfy public demand.

Chen Yupeng listened to his superior’s complaints, feeling a little smug himself. ”Leader Wang, to be honest, I’ve had plenty of people approach me with the exact same requests.”

”The thing is, for regular seafood farming, you can just hire experienced fishermen. But a fish seed breeding base needs educated university graduates with R&D skills, not fishermen.”

”But the Jinshan Bay Fish Seed Breeding Base is a private company. Right now, only three of Professor Wang and Professor Li’s students are willing to work there, and that’s only because President Han is paying them a hefty salary. She’s tried to recruit more, but as soon as people hear it’s a private enterprise, they lose interest.”

”Without the right people, even if we could provide President Han with more bays for aquaculture, there’d be no one to do the work. It would just be a waste. At the end of the day, the root of the problem is a shortage of talent.”