I want to be emperor

Chapter 939 North American Beef on the Table

The refrigeration industry has exploded intensively in Chengshun 40 years, especially in the second half of the year. This is not only due to the grain production support plan launched in the autumn of 40 years, but also to the gradual maturity of steam power compression refrigeration technology and the support of the transportation and industrial industries. Huge demand for refrigeration.

Not to mention the transportation and storage industries, this is mainly used for frozen storage and transportation of meat.

But it is worth noting that the demand for refrigeration in industrial production has also been rising rapidly in recent years.

In the production process of some industries, there are certain requirements for the temperature and humidity in the workshop.

For example, the printing industry... In the contemporary printing industry of the Chu Empire, due to technical reasons, a certain degree of low temperature and constant humidity can effectively improve the printing quality.

In Chengshun's 38th year, a printing factory took the lead in using Bell's refrigeration machines to maintain a relatively low temperature and constant humidity in the workshop to improve the printing quality of printed matter. Subsequently, some printing companies also introduced Bell's industrial air-conditioning systems.

However, the low temperature and constant humidity requirements in the printing industry are currently limited to high-end printing because of the high cost. As for ordinary printing...it is naturally not possible due to cost factors.

The same situation also occurs in some other industries. For example, the textile industry has stronger requirements for low temperature and constant humidity. There are also some high-precision industries. Keeping cool and comfortable workshops can effectively improve the work efficiency of workers. , improve the yield rate of products...

After all, working in a factory with a high temperature of 35 degrees Celsius and working in a factory with a constant humidity of 25 degrees Celsius have completely different work efficiency.

The demand for refrigeration equipment in transportation, storage and industrial production has directly driven the rapid development of the refrigeration industry.

It is worth noting that until the 40th year of Chengshun, the usage scenarios of Dachu Empire’s refrigeration equipment are still industrial and transportation and storage scenarios, mainly used for products!
People's enjoyment of air conditioning is limited to a very small number of high-end commercial buildings, such as luxury interstellar hotels, new luxury office buildings, and luxury luxury goods merchant ships.

As for the ordinary furniture scene, it has not appeared yet.

This is limited by the extremely limited level of contemporary refrigeration technology. Not only is the equipment expensive, but it is also very expensive to use, and it is also very dangerous.

The equipment is expensive because in order to operate this thing, not only the refrigerator itself is needed, but also a steam engine to provide power... Not only is it expensive, but it is also very troublesome to use.

Routine maintenance and use costs are also very expensive. The steam engine needs to burn coal when it is started, and the power demand is relatively large, so the power of the steam engine cannot be too small.

Finally, it is highly dangerous... In Chu State's refrigeration equipment these days, different manufacturers use different refrigerants, but they generally use toxic gases, such as ammonia and methyl chloride.

When a leak occurs it's a big story.

In order to ensure that air conditioners do not leak refrigerant and cause accidents, the Navy, as the earliest major user of air conditioners, has put forward a series of very demanding technical requirements for refrigeration equipment, and these harsh technical requirements have also become refrigeration equipment. Industry safety standards.

In the refrigeration equipment safety standards issued in 39 by the Imperial Industrial and Commercial Organization, the minimum standards were directly based on the Navy's safety standards for refrigeration equipment...it can only be high, not low!

This is one of the reasons why the production cost of refrigeration equipment is very expensive, and the installation and subsequent maintenance costs are very expensive.

But the technical requirements are not strict... Once this thing leaks refrigerant, it will be in big trouble.

However, despite this or that problem, the refrigeration industry has still developed staggeringly. The most direct effect is that numerous refrigerated warehouses have appeared in various places, especially in the production areas and distribution centers of the livestock industry, and trains have appeared in the transportation industry. Refrigerated carriages, ocean-going refrigerated transport ships, small and medium-sized inland river refrigerated transport ships.

A large amount of meat from the main livestock production areas in the north, such as Monan, Mobei, Northeast, Siberia, Central Asia and other regions, began to be continuously imported through train refrigerated carriages to the Central Plains, Jiangnan, South and other provinces with relatively low meat production.

At the same time, a large amount of meat from overseas regions, mainly North America, has begun to enter the local market through frozen transportation channels.

In October of the 40th year of Chengshun, just one large refrigerated transport ship returned from North America and brought back more than 7000 tons of various frozen meats. Moreover, the local production was relatively small and the price was relatively expensive. host.

After more than 7000 tons of frozen meat arrived at the Songjiang City Terminal, it was hoisted and moved to the refrigerated warehouse on the pier. Then the owner of this batch of goods, the Jiangnan Branch of the Animal Husbandry Corporation, began to distribute the frozen beef through channels.

Sold to many small and medium-sized meat wholesalers in Songjiang City.

Soon, these frozen meats will gradually enter the retail market through the channels of small and medium-sized wholesalers, and finally enter the catering industry or vegetable markets and be purchased by residents.

The cook of Sun Xu's family in the northern suburb of Songjiang City bought several kilograms of food when she went to the vegetable market.

That night, when Sun Xu returned home from get off work, he ate this batch of frozen beef from North America.

In recent years, as his income has increased and his quality of life has improved, Sun Xu has become accustomed to eating meat. He frowned slightly after eating a few pieces of fried beef.

The taste of this beef is a little different from the previous beef...

After seeing Sun Xu's expression, Sun Mengshi on the side said immediately: "The kitchen said before that frozen beef from North America is gradually coming on the market. The price is relatively low, only about [-] to [-]% of local beef. I asked the kitchen to buy some. Come back and try!”

Hearing his wife's words, Sun Xu nodded slightly: "That's right, no wonder the taste is different!"

Sun Xu also reads newspapers every day, so he naturally knows that since last year, frozen ships have been arriving at the port, transporting frozen meat from overseas. In addition, frozen meat from the northern region has also begun to be transported to Songjiang by train or ship.

It’s just that the amount of frozen meat was still relatively small in the past, so there wasn’t actually much seen on the market.

In fact, a lot of frozen meat transported back from the northern region or overseas basically enters food processing plants, such as those canning factories, and not many actually enter the retail market.

But unexpectedly, not long after, more and more frozen meats were shipped from the north and North America, so much so that they began to enter the retail market on a large scale.

However, Sun Xu still welcomed this: "Although the taste of this frozen beef is a little worse, it is cheap after all. This fresh beef is too expensive, so it is good to have a replacement!"

Previously, the beef supply on the market in Songjiang was mainly from Jiangnan and neighboring areas. There were also some beef cattle farms in the surrounding areas, and some old cattle from surrounding rural areas would also flow into the market.

In addition, cattle from other places, such as the northern region, are transported directly to Songjiang by train, and then slaughtered and sold. However, the cost of this method of transportation is too high and the volume cannot be increased.

This has also caused the supply of beef in Songjiang City to be in short supply for a long time. The price is relatively expensive, and even those with money cannot afford it... Only high-income families can eat beef regularly.

For ordinary families, the meat supply is mainly fish, chicken, duck, and pork.

The supply of fish meat is large, mainly because the fishery is developing well and a large number of fish can be caught every year. In addition, the fish breeding industry is also developing very well.

The reason why the fish breeding industry has developed well is that raising fish is simple and low-cost.

The same goes for chickens and pigs!
The pigs among them have been bred and selected by the National Animal Husbandry Corporation for 30 to [-] years. The Dachu Empire has also bred several pigs with higher meat yields, shorter slaughter cycles, and better feeding.

Large-scale breeding farms and farmers raise their own fish on a large scale.

This also made pork the main meat on the Chu people's table, rather than beef or horse meat.

This has nothing to do with eating habits...it's purely a cost factor.

When it comes to eating habits, most Chinese people used to respect beef... Whether it was the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States Period or the Pre-Ming Dynasty, because the meat quality of early pork was not very good, the fishy smell was also strong, and the cooking methods, including seasonings, were not good... so it is a long paragraph. During this time, pork was a meat that was not available on the table.

The meat eaten by the powerful is generally based on beef. Even though the killing of cows is generally prohibited in the feudal dynasty, it cannot stop the rich and powerful from yearning for beef... If the government does not allow the killing of cows, then they will let the cows fall to death or die of illness... The solution There are plenty of them.

Therefore, in the past thousands of years until the pre-Ming Dynasty, being able to eat beef regularly could even be regarded as a reflection of social status and money.

Even in the Great Chu Empire, although with the continuous development of animal husbandry, the supply of cattle has increased significantly, and private slaughter of cattle is no longer mandatory... but the overall supply of beef is still relatively small.

In addition, there is horse meat. Although the number of horses in the Chu Empire is large at first glance, it seems to be tens of millions, but it is not worth mentioning compared with livestock such as pigs, chickens and ducks.

Horses are relatively expensive. Horses in the Dachu Empire were mainly used as production tools... They were used for plowing fields or pulling carts. If they were raised for food, the cost would be too high and the meat-to-feed ratio would be too high. Worse, it is almost the most expensive type of livestock among livestock such as pigs, cattle, sheep, horses, chickens, and ducks.

In addition, horse meat does not taste good and has thick fiber.

To sum up, the poor feed-to-meat ratio leads to high costs, and the taste is not good, so no one raises horses specifically for eating. Even the purpose of raising horses is not for eating...

Taken together, this has led to the current situation in the eighteen provinces within the Guan within the Great Chu Empire, especially in areas such as Jiangnan where the economy is relatively good and meat consumption is relatively large. The meat supply is mainly chicken, duck and pig, supplemented by mutton. As for the Beef is less popular and is reserved only for rich people.

Horse meat can actually be seen occasionally, but the quantity is very small and there is no stable source of supply. It is an unconventional supply.

With Sun Xu's income, their family can basically eat beef if they want it, not just every day!

With an annual salary of nearly [-] yuan a year, Sun Xu's income in the entire Songjiang City is also among the high-income group. The only people who can earn more than him are the big bosses or the powerful.

It can even be said that Sun Xu's income has reached the top level among ordinary people. If he goes up higher, he is no longer an ordinary person, but belongs to the wealthy and powerful class.

However, Sun Xu's family expenses are still relatively low compared to his income, and his daily food and drink are actually at the level of an ordinary high-income person.

After all, they both come from ordinary middle-income families... To put it bluntly, they have not yet adapted to the life of the wealthy class.In some places that can be seen from the outside, such as accommodation, clothing, daily social interactions, etc., in order to be consistent with the surrounding neighbors and social people of the same class, private consumption is still relatively economical.

This is why when Sun Mengshi heard that there was frozen beef on the market, she asked the cook to buy some and try it.

After Sun Xu also learned about it, although he didn't like the taste of the frozen beef, he still nodded to express Sun Meng's housekeeping.

The price of frozen beef in North America is only about [-] to [-]% of that of local fresh beef. This price gap is still relatively large.

Frozen beef from North America is not only on the dining table of Sun Xu’s family, but also on the dining tables of many middle- and high-income families.

The winter of Chengshun 40 years ago was a very representative period for the frozen meat industry.

Because starting from this time, frozen beef from North America was not only supplied to various food processing plants, but also began to enter the retail market, truly appearing on residents' tables.

And because the price of frozen meat is relatively cheap, and the quality of beef from North American beef cattle is also very good, it has been greatly welcomed by residents.

A total of three ships of North American frozen beef, weighing more than 3000 tons, organized by the Dachu Empire Animal Husbandry Corporation, were delivered to Songjiang City and surrounding Suzhou, Tongzhou, Zhenjiang, Jinling City, Hangzhou, etc., with good economies, complete transportation, and refrigeration facilities. After entering the city, it received very good feedback in the retail market.

It didn't take long for the downstream meat wholesale channel dealers to find the Animal Husbandry Corporation to place orders.

Not only are the channel dealers in these places eager to place orders, but meat wholesale practitioners in other cities also want to test the frozen meat retail market after hearing the news.

The Animal Husbandry Corporation, which was originally worried about market acceptance, received positive feedback from the market, and the company's senior management breathed a sigh of relief.

As the leader of the animal husbandry industry in the Dachu Empire, the company received a major task from the cabinet a few years ago to use technological breakthroughs in the refrigerated transportation industry to initially establish a meat supply guarantee!

This adds another strategic task to the Animal Husbandry Corporation!
The early purpose of the empire's establishment of the company was actually very simple, that is, to ensure a stable supply of cattle, draft horses, and military horses across the country.

Later, the strategic task of ensuring meat supply was added.

For this reason, in the past few years, the Animal Husbandry Corporation can be said to have made many big moves. It has successively established more than ten large-scale beef cattle breeding farms in North America, and established many breeding farms in the northern and western regions of the empire. It has also established partnerships with the northern and western regions. Other farms or herdsmen in the western region sign purchase agreements for meat sheep and cattle, etc.

Then it invested heavily in building more than a dozen ocean-going refrigerated transport ships, forty or fifty small inland river refrigerated transport ships, and jointly invested with the Railway Corporation to build a large number of train refrigerated carriages.

We are also investing in the construction of refrigerated warehouses in various places!

It can be said that the early frozen transportation and frozen storage in the Dachu Empire were developed by the Animal Husbandry Corporation.

Millions of dollars have been invested in this!

As many refrigerated transport ships, refrigerated carriages, and refrigerated warehouses were built one after another, overseas breeding farms began to produce beef cattle one after another, and cooperative breeding companies also began to produce beef cattle, mutton sheep, etc.

The Animal Husbandry Corporation first supplied frozen meat to the food processing industry and large catering enterprises!

Now, as the supply of frozen meat has further increased, it has begun to be supplied directly to the retail market.

The positive feedback from the retail market also made the senior management of the Animal Husbandry Corporation feel relieved... After the retail market is opened, the large amount of products accumulated later can be supplied to the market on a large scale without worrying about breach of contract.

You must know that the Animal Husbandry Corporation has not only built many large-scale breeding farms in North America and the local area, but has also signed purchase agreements with other breeding companies, plantations, and even herdsmen... You can't sign an agreement. The beef cattle have also been raised, and you don’t want them here. If you break the contract, you will not only have to pay for it, but it will also cause great harm to the entire livestock market.

Before putting frozen meat products into the Jiangnan retail market, there were already a large number of beef cattle waiting to be sold in North America, and the frozen warehouses were almost full!
Therefore, after receiving good feedback from the market, the Animal Husbandry Corporation immediately issued relevant instructions to its branches to further expand the supply of frozen meat.

Investment in infrastructure such as refrigerated warehouses and refrigerated transport ships can also continue.

After this news was sent to Jinshan Port in North America by the fast communication ship, the North American branch of the Animal Husbandry Corporation immediately began to ship frozen beef to the mainland.

At the same time, the slaughtering factory continues to operate, and orders for continued purchase of beef cattle and mutton sheep are issued to major cooperative professional breeding farms, commercial or private farms.

If nothing else goes wrong, the ocean-going refrigerated transport ships held by the Animal Husbandry Corporation and leased to several shipping companies for specific operations will start their continuous operation and continue to transport frozen meat back to China from North America... until more of refrigerated transport ships were built and put into operation to reduce operational pressure.

When the Animal Husbandry Corporation made its year-end report to the cabinet, it gave goals for next year.

Next year, the 41st year of Chengshun, the company will be able to import at least 30 tons of frozen meat from America, India, Europe, West Asia and many other places to the mainland.

Although this supply is far from sufficient to supply local meat consumption... The Dachu Empire now has a population of [-] million. Although the living standard is still relatively low, it has a vast territory and abundant resources, distributed in the vast eighteen provinces of Guan Nei, Nanyang, and Northeast China. , the west, Siberia, southern and northern deserts and other places... these are not even counting overseas areas.

Therefore, the living standards of the people in the Great Chu Empire were actually quite acceptable, with more than 380 kilograms of grain per capita. The supply of meat was actually quite large, with about ten kilograms per capita, which added up to close to tens of millions of tons.

The 30 tons of overseas meat supplied to the local area actually does not change much in terms of the total supply...it is just a fraction.

However, it is worth noting that the supply of meat in the Chu Empire was uneven.

Meat is actually very common in places with vast land and sparse people, such as Central Asia, Siberia, southern and northern Mongolia, and even the Northeast, because these places are originally livestock production areas and produce a lot of meat.

However, in the eighteen provinces within the Guanhai Passage, especially in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and other areas with relatively dense populations, the supply of meat seems to be large, but on average it is relatively small per individual.

This is because the local per capita production is relatively small, and the long-distance transportation of meat is relatively limited.

Now that frozen transportation is available, a large amount of meat from overseas territories and colonies can be directly frozen and transported to the coastal and riverside areas of the mainland. This will balance the entire domestic meat supply market to a certain extent and reduce the price of some areas to a certain extent. Meat prices.

For example, Songjiang seems to be economically developed, but the price of meat has long been relatively high.

There are no other reasons. The local production is small and the external input and transportation are high... At the same time, the local population is very dense and the consumption power is also strong. Overall, the price of meat in the Songjiang area is relatively expensive.

Especially beef!
Allowing more people to afford meat is a new strategic task of the Animal Husbandry Corporation in recent years, and it is also an important part of the Dachu Empire's grain production support plan.

Having enough food, eating well, and eating cheaply has been the core policy goal of the Chu Empire in recent years.

Frozen transportation of meat is only a small part of this huge policy goal!

But only such a small part has a huge impact, especially on ordinary people.

Without the refrigerated transportation industry chain in the past, how could Chinese people afford to eat beef from overseas areas... If the live body was transported directly by sea, the cost would be huge!

When the Army, which has a large family and a large business, now conducts large-scale overseas deployments, it tries its best to find mules and horses locally to replace them, instead of having to drag military horses from the mainland.

Large-scale sea transportation of livestock is too expensive and can lead to large-scale livestock deaths if not careful.

The Army tried to transfer a cavalry regiment to India via shipping from the mainland... As a result, after the cavalry regiment arrived in India, it was directly transformed into an infantry regiment!
Because the fleet was hit by bad weather during the transportation of the war horses, the people were fine, but the war horses were almost dead.

What a tragedy!

Therefore, this is why the Chu army likes to open military horse farms to raise horses on a large scale in many overseas colonies. Large-scale transportation of military horses by sea is too expensive, and the army said it cannot afford it.

There are military horse farms of the Chu army in the Americas, India, Africa, and even now there are several in Europe... The European Expeditionary Force directly built seven or eight super large military horse farms in Spain, breeding a large number of various species. A military horse.

Therefore, the actual military horses used by the Chu army overseas are all in a mess. Basically, they are used for whatever they have locally...

For example, the Chu army fighting in Europe has now begun to use some local horses in Europe on a large scale. For example, Andalusian horses are used on a large scale by the Chu army.

At the same time, the local horse breeds carried, such as Fengzhou horses for draft, Liaoxi horses for riding, and local European horse breeds are cross-bred.

It can be seen from this that even in the steam age, it is still difficult or expensive to transport horses on a large scale by sea... The same situation applies to cattle, sheep and other livestock.

But it is much simpler, more convenient and cheaper to slaughter the meat first in the production area and then transport the meat frozen by ship.

In addition, not only sea transportation, but also land transportation and inland water transportation are also applicable to this situation.

This is also the premise for the emergence and large-scale application of refrigerated transportation!

And soon, people in other industries also discovered the benefits of refrigerated transportation... They are businessmen in the fishery and fruit industries.

(End of this chapter)