Chapter 1155: Building the Northern Saigranary

After receiving the order, the assistant turned around and left the office as quickly as if he was running for his life, fearing that he would be affected by the leader's anger.

However, before he returned to his office to start writing, Zhao Guangsheng received a call from Bi Liang, Director of the Development Planning Department of the Ministry of Agriculture.

The other party didn't say a word of nonsense and asked directly:

"Old Zhao, the Ministry is planning to ask Sinograin to release 80 tons of soybean reserves. What do you think?"

Obviously, the leaders are not idle either.

But I'm thinking about the same thing as him.

However, Zhao Guangsheng's expression did not relax at all.

After thinking for a moment, he replied:

"In the short term, it should be possible to hedge the futures price slightly, but in the medium and long term, it cannot affect the general trend of price increases..."

There was only silence on the other end of the phone...

Finally, Zhao Guangsheng, who still couldn't stand the depressing atmosphere, continued:

"According to our calculations, if we only supply the basic domestic consumption, then combined with part of this year's production, it can roughly last until early summer next year... But if we take into account the panic of enterprises and the public, as well as the speculators who buy in the financial market..."

In fact, he is by no means a defeatist counselor.

But the current situation does not allow him to give an optimistic answer.

Although the national special grain reserve system was established 14 years ago in 1990, its original intention was not to make strategic reserves to cope with food shortages. It was only because consecutive bumper grain harvests led to serious oversupply in some areas that the state stepped in to solve the problem of grain sales.

It was not until 2000 that special grain reserves were officially transformed into a vertical management system for central grain reserves, and the China National Grain and Oils Reserves Corporation was established in the same year.

As for clarifying its task of macro-control of the grain market, it had to wait until 2003.

It's only been a year since then, and there is no time to accumulate much inventory.

Although it can solve the problem temporarily, it is obviously beyond its ability to hedge against the four major grain traders with strong financial resources, as well as the financial giants on Wall Street.

As a product of the modern financial industry, the futures market has already, to some extent, moved away from the scope of physical delivery by the 21st century.

Sometimes it can even dominate the supply and demand relationship in the physical market.

In this case, if one wants to push down the price simply by releasing goods, it is absolutely impossible to do so with just "sufficient" quantity.

Referring to the "two whites and one black" war in Shanghai in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was necessary to set aside excessive material reserves so that those speculators would either suffer a broken capital chain or lose confidence and dare not continue to hoard goods, in order to settle the matter.

However, China National Grain and Oils Corporation’s current reserves are still far from meeting this requirement.

After a few seconds... or perhaps more than ten seconds, the other party spoke again:

“What if we could get support from LDC... or at least neutrality?”

This question surprised Zhao Guangsheng a little.

After all, I had never heard of any special relationship between the agricultural sector and Louis Dreyfus before.

But from Bi Liang's tone, he seemed very confident about this.

But the problem is that the four major grain merchants just happened to get the only useless one...

"It doesn't make much sense..."

Zhao Guangsheng reluctantly gave the same pessimistic answer as before:

"If it's staple food... including corn, then Louis Dreyfus does have a certain influence, but the soybean market is almost completely controlled by North America, and the French can't play a decisive role..."

For a moment, the situation seemed to be at a stalemate...

The situation in the following days was almost exactly as Zhao Guangsheng predicted.

The 80 tons of inventory released by China National Grain and Oils Corporation did ease the overheating of the domestic market to a certain extent, but it was quickly swept away by downstream companies that were already in a rush to compete.

The second round of releases that followed finally managed to curb the plans of these companies to go overseas to buy goods at high prices, but if the anxiety at the market level as a whole cannot be alleviated, it will only be a temporary solution.

Therefore, some positive signals must be released.

If it were in the past, there would be no better solution except to continue releasing reserves.

After all, neither the financial market nor the public opinion front is in one's own hands.

We can only bring out the real stuff to speak for itself.

But right now, there is indeed a positive signal that is within easy reach...

……

So, one day in early September, Chang Haonan suddenly received a call asking him and Zhuang Bingchang to go to the Academy of Sciences for a meeting three days later.

Although Professor Zhuang has just returned to Meng Province not long ago, this is a serious matter after all, and it was directly mentioned by his superiors, so he will definitely have to make a trip.

Compared to a month ago, the number of attendees at this meeting was small, with less than twenty names on the list, and the format was closer to a traditional symposium.

But the specifications are even better.

Moreover, it is also closer to a staffing structure that can make direct decisions.

"There's a show!"

As soon as Chang Haonan walked into the room, he immediately raised his psychological threshold.

Zhuang Bingchang, who followed him in, also behaved much more skillfully after experiencing the last big scene.

He greeted everyone present in turn, then sat down at his seat and started reading the document in front of him, which was about a hundred pages long and labeled "Internal Information."

After more than ten minutes, the remaining few seats were filled one after another.

As the elder sitting at the top turned on the microphone, the meeting officially began.

"I think you all have already understood the dynamics of the international market in the past two weeks."

When a senior leader presides over a meeting, he doesn't need to lay the groundwork, but gets straight to the point:

"China National Grain and Oils Reserves Corporation has planned to release the third batch of 80 tons of soybean reserves, which is estimated to stabilize market sentiment until the end of October. However, this is not a solution. We have limited inventory and must use other means to boost the confidence of the entire industry in the raw material market."

"At the beginning of last month, Comrade Chang Haonan proposed that we could use sand modification technology to transform three desertified sandy lands in the eastern part of Inner Mongolia Province into farmland suitable for cultivation. So we plan to launch a new high-standard farmland construction project at the critical stage of this year's autumn harvest..."

"..."

Compared to 2007 when the second soybean war broke out in the previous life, the current timing has a huge advantage.

That is, thousands of related domestic companies are still all controlled by our own people and have not been acquired by international grain traders.

They may hoard raw materials beyond normal reserves out of panic, but as the downstream of the industrial chain, they do not have the motivation or strength to actively stockpile goods and drive up prices.

It is also much easier to calm the situation.

After the big leader finished his summary speech, it was the turn of the specific departments to express their views.

The first one is naturally Li Zhongyi from the Construction Committee:

"During this period, we have conducted a survey on the two main raw materials mentioned by Academician Chang last time. Among them, polyacrylamide is a fairly common water-soluble polymer product. The expected domestic production capacity is 25 tons per year, and there is an import volume of about 3 to 5 tons, which can basically fully meet the needs of the pilot project."

"But the other one..."

Having said this, he paused for a moment and glanced in the direction of Chang Haonan:

"Sodium carboxymethyl cellulose has only been used on a relatively large scale in the food industry and the oil extraction industry. The total global production is only about 30 to 40 tons per year, and the domestic production capacity is only about 10 tons. However, we have contacted state-owned enterprises in related industries and tried our best to ensure priority supply for strategic projects..."

"..."

Next is the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission:

"We plan to halt the restructuring plan of Huaxia Aquatic Products Group Corporation and Huaxia Animal Husbandry and Industry Group Corporation next month, and instruct the latter to fully cooperate with Huaxia Agricultural Reclamation Group Corporation to ensure sufficient supply of relevant forestry and grass products, fertilizers and pesticides, and to communicate with local pastoral areas in a timely manner to avoid disputes over land use..."

The leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture also followed suit and expressed their views:

"Among the three areas mentioned by Academician Chang last time, the Hulunbuir Desert is about to enter winter, and the temperature is approaching below zero, making it difficult to further carry out desert transformation work. However, there is still a time window of about three months for the Horqin Desert and the Hunshandake Desert. According to the data reported by the Inner Mongolia Agricultural Reclamation Bureau, they can transfer more than 118 employees and no less than 2.3 vehicles and equipment from 1000 state-owned farms without affecting the progress of the autumn harvest..."

"In addition, if the demand still cannot be met, further support can be obtained from the agricultural reclamation institutions in the three northeastern provinces..."

"..."

Although it was not a military project, the industrial and agricultural systems still demonstrated to Chang Haonan the efficiency of mobilizing the entire country's strength.

These resources are definitely a drop in the bucket to serve the 4000 million mu plan in the first phase of the project, but if concentrated together, there is still a chance to complete the transformation task at the million-mu level.

The only problem is time.

When it comes to agriculture, you can't catch up with the progress just by working overtime.

Chang Haonan certainly understood that his superiors did not mean to use the output of his one million acres of land to go to the market for emergency relief, but to use this plan to provide confidence to the domestic market.

International capital is not a villain NPC that has descended from the sky like a deus ex machina. They also need to borrow money from banks when building positions for speculation and have to bear the corresponding cash flow pressure.

Similarly, the four major grain traders also need to rent land and granaries to stockpile soybeans, and they also have to bear the losses of long-term storage.

Therefore, as long as we can withstand this wave of attacks, by the turn of spring and summer next year, when the expected serious natural disasters have not occurred, the other side will not be able to hold on.

But even though he understood, Chang Haonan still suppressed the excitement and emotion in his heart, and gave everyone a heads-up in advance:

"Using soil stabilizers to transform sandy land is only the first stage of the whole plan. It will also require secondary reinforcement through the root system of herbaceous plants, and then using modified soybeans to restore soil fertility. The whole cycle will take about 2-3 years. For the soybean shortage, I am afraid that distant water cannot quench the immediate thirst."

"In addition, the soybean varieties we used for modification focused on drought and salinity tolerance, and were not outstanding in terms of yield..."

Sure enough, the leader in front waved his hand, signaling him not to say anything more:

"Don't worry, we won't make demands that are out of touch with reality."

"As long as the planned farmland can turn green by next summer and grow soybean crops that everyone can see and touch, this 'Northern Saigranary' project will have achieved great success!"