A seafood market in Pengcheng.
Uncle Xiang, Zhou Wang and an old sailor were squatting in front of a small truck, smoking silently.
"Brother De, why don't we go back?" Zhou Wang sighed, "The rental of the truck, ice, and the food and sleep for the three of us cost several hundred yuan a day. The income is not enough to cover the expenses."
"I won't go back until I sell these fish." He Mingde glanced at the truck behind him, "Have you forgotten what the captain told you before we set out? Don't worry about the expenses. As long as we sell the catch, it's a victory."
"Okay!" Zhou Wang smiled bitterly, lit another cigarette, and stopped talking.
Xiang Yang attaches great importance to this batch of catch weighing several thousand kilograms and worth only tens of thousands of yuan, because there will be more and more such catches in the future. If this batch of catch cannot be sold, the loss will be more than just tens of thousands of yuan.
As long as he can sell this batch of goods, or even establish a stable and long-term sales channel with the buyer, Xiang Yang is willing to pay any price, not to mention the expenses.
An older woman walked towards the truck.
He Mingde stood up quickly and said, "Sister, do you want to see some seafood?"
The elder sister picked up a small red fish and asked, "How much are these fish?"
"Sell?" Uncle Xiang tried to ask, "Do you want to buy in bulk or buy it back for yourself?"
"Of course I buy it back to eat myself. Why would I buy it in bulk? I don't do seafood business." said the elder sister.
He Mingde lost interest as soon as he heard that they were buying vegetables. They were crew members and had never considered doing retail business. But he still said, "Sister, the ones you have are 45 yuan per pound."
When the elder sister heard this, she immediately put down the little red fish in her hand with disgust, turned around and walked away without even bargaining.
"Frozen fish costs forty-five yuan per pound. Wouldn't it be better for me to buy live fish?" The elder sister said this to He Mingde after she had walked a long way away.
He Mingde smiled bitterly and shook his head, then squatted in front of the truck again.
There is no way. These mid- and low-end seafood are in such an awkward position in the market. They cannot be served on the tables of big hotels because the quantity is smaller than that of cheap seafood and the cost of raising them is high due to unstable supply. No one in the seafood market is willing to raise them with seawater, but the price is actually more expensive than cheap seafood and they are not popular with consumers at all.
"What do you think, brother? I told you that these sea fish are not easy to sell in our seafood market, right?" A seafood store owner who spoke with a Hunan accent walked out of his store and squatted next to Uncle Xiang with a smile. He took out a pack of Huangfu from his pocket and gave one to each of He Mingde and the other two.
He Mingde was very depressed. "Brother Wu, don't you also sell this kind of sea fish in your store? Why is yours so easy to sell when the price I sell it at is the same as yours?"
"They are all regular customers. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to sell these fish." Wu Zhan shook his head.
Zhou Wang said in a flattering tone: "Brother Wu, we are all fishermen. You are importing these goods anyway, so why don't you help us?" Zhou Wang's subtext was to let Wu Zhan sell their goods.
"I really can't help you with this." Wu Zhan shook his head.
"We can sell it to you at a price 10% lower than your purchase price." He Mingde said immediately.
"Don't even mention one level down. Even if you go five levels down, no one will be able to help you." Wu Zhan smiled and pointed at a large water tank in front of another seafood restaurant across the street. "Do you see what that is?"
"Blue crab?" He Mingde wondered.
"It's a large blue crab weighing more than 300 grams." Wu Zhan corrected.
He Mingde nodded. The blue crabs in the water tank were indeed big and plump.
Wu Zhan sighed, "Actually, I buy blue crabs from the same supplier as that store, but I can only get blue crabs that weigh less than 3 taels."
"It's because I only bought a few hundred kilograms of this type of marine fish last month, while the store across the street bought more than a thousand kilograms." Wu Zhan saw the confusion of the three people and explained, "Our supplier has a mandatory requirement. If you want to buy blue crabs weighing more than 300 kilograms, you must buy a thousand kilograms of low- and medium-end seafood a month in advance. Some other high-end seafood also have similar requirements."
He Mingde was surprised and asked, "Can they guarantee that they can get more than 300 grams of blue crabs every month? How big a fleet do they need?"
"If they want to guarantee that there are more than 300 grams of blue crabs every month, do they need to set this rule?" Wu Zhan sneered. "It is precisely because they cannot produce good products every month that we are unwilling to take chances. Otherwise, it would have been close to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Even if I had bought and thrown away last month, I would have received a thousand kilograms of goods. Who knew that they could actually get more than 300 grams of blue crabs this month?"
Wu Zhan also sighed as he spoke, "Mid-Autumn Festival is coming soon, which is the best time to eat crabs. If my store doesn't have crabs weighing more than 300 grams, how much business will I lose!"
He Mingde and the other two looked at each other, "No wonder we can't sell it even if we lower the price. It turns out there is such a rule in the market."
"There is such a rule, but can you produce more than 300 grams of blue crabs?" Wu Zhan asked.
He Mingde shook his head. Although Xiang Yang's family bought crabs, most of them were about 2 taels. 2.5 taels were rare, and 3 taels were even rarer.
"Then can you come up with other high-end seafood products?" Wu Zhan continued to ask.
He Mingde continued to shake his head. Although he had caught the extremely rare migratory pufferfish last time, he had already sold it to Boss Li and could not get it back. Even if he could get it back, He Mingde would not ask for it because Boss Li was selling directly, and this place was wholesale after all. The price Boss Li offered was much higher than wholesale, and the sale of these mid- and low-end products was not enough to make up for the difference.
Wu Zhan went back to look after the store.
When He Mingde and the other two found out why they couldn't sell their catch, they became even more worried because they couldn't think of any solution.
Just when the three of them were at a loss, Xiang Yang called.
"What?"
"What did you say?"
"Oh, okay, I'll come pick you up now."
He Mingde hung up the phone and said blankly, "The captain said he got several hundred kilograms of swimming crabs and dozens of large lobsters."
"How many jin?" Zhou Wang's eyes lit up. "How big is it? Is each one only three liang?"
"The captain said the smallest one weighs four taels." He Mingde said blankly.
"hiss!"
Zhou Wang took a breath of cold air.
"No more talking. You two keep an eye on the truck. The captain is coming here with the Huolala truck. I'll go pick him up." Uncle Xiang extinguished his cigarette and hurried out of the seafood market.
Five minutes later, a Huolala truck stopped at the seafood market.
Uncle Xiang directed two crew members to move foam boxes with ice packs from the Huolala truck to the cabin of the small truck.
Xiang Yang also got out of the passenger seat of Huolala and looked at a corner of this prosperous city of Peng.