Riding the wind of rebirth

The mushrooms on the ground were more precious. For fear that they would be crushed, they were placed on the top of the backpack, covered with banana leaves and carried into the city.

After the stall is occupied, the leaves are spread out and the top layer of mushrooms are placed on the leaves. These are basically the more "noble" mushrooms such as chicken mushroom, matsutake, tiger palm, chanterelle, morel, etc.

There was still a large pile of mushrooms left next to the backpack, placed in a less conspicuous position. They were porcini, clematis, blue-headed mushrooms and other slightly inferior mushrooms.

This is a big world of mushrooms, with at least twenty or thirty different kinds of mushrooms, many of which Zhou Zhi cannot even name.

Matsui Zou and Jin Junyi were completely dumbfounded when they arrived at the intersection, with their mouths wide open.

The villagers were dressed simply and were barefoot with dark skin. If the mushrooms in front of any of them were converted into Tokyo prices, they would cost a lot of money!

However, these things are placed here, just like cabbage and radishes, for anyone to pick and choose.

"Elbow..." Matsui Zao swallowed his saliva and tugged at Zhou Zhi's sleeve: "That matsutake is so thick..."

"The thick ones are not tasty." Zhou Zhi rolled his eyes silently in his heart: "We should choose the ones that are neither too big nor too small, and have not been unearthed for a long time."

"Really? Shall we have this for lunch today?"

At this point, Zhou Zhi remembered that the way of eating matsutake mushrooms in the autonomous prefecture might be different from the conventional way of eating them in later generations, so he asked Li Yutang: "How do people in the prefecture eat matsutake mushrooms?"

"Just like porcini mushrooms, stir-fry them." Li Yutang said, "Or stew them in chicken soup, what's wrong with that?"

"Tell the hotel to prepare a set of brazier barbecue equipment, and also prepare some mustard. Qionghai Hotel has pepper and salt shakers, right?"

"I'll take care of it." Li Yutang's secretary said with a perceptive look, "Tell them to get ready."

He Dayong didn't really like these mushrooms. He was a fan of meatballs and pickled vegetables from the canteen of Jiachuan Water Supply Company. However, he was greatly surprised by this scene: "Why are there so many?!"

"This is just the amount from the towns and villages within a two-hour drive of the autonomous region." Zhou Zhi said: "If we have special transport vehicles in the future, this amount can be at least five or six times more."

"However, not all mushrooms are suitable for making mushroom sauce. Wild mushrooms are of course the best, but the real fragrance and aroma must be from dried mushrooms." Zhou Zhi's foodie nature began to show: "So if you want to make mushroom sauce, you need to use half dried mushrooms and half fresh mushrooms, so that the taste and flavor can be taken into account."

"The benefit of doing this is that it can also reduce the inventory pressure of cold storage."

"That makes sense."

"Knuckle, how long does it take to transport the matsutake mushrooms here to Tokyo?"

"The problem with mushrooms is that they age during transportation." Li Yutang seems to have done his homework: "The current mainstream preservation methods include sodium metabisulfite preservation, kinetin preservation and bijiu preservation."

"Among the three retarders, sodium metabisulfite is the cheapest and has a longer shelf life, followed by kinetin. The longest-lasting retarder, biju, can keep mushrooms at room temperature for eight days." "Eight days is too long." Zhou Zhi directly rejected the proposal: "And various residues may exceed the standard, making it difficult to obtain market access to Japan and South Korea."

"Whether it's cold freshness or a retarder, the core function is to slow down respiration and reduce oxidation," Zhou Zhi said. "We contacted the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and they recommended the use of the latest vacuum preservation technology."

"Put the mushrooms in bags, then remove the air from the bags, and then refrigerate them at a low temperature of 2 to 5 degrees to preserve them. This can also extend the shelf life of the mushrooms to eight to ten days."

"Our group is very familiar with this technology." He Dayong said happily: "Our aluminum bag pickles use the vacuum packaging technology."

"And this is just a safety measure. We have to reduce the actual air freight time." Zhou Zhi said: "It takes four hours from the collection of matsutake to the arrival of the farm. Then it takes another four hours to enter the cold chain starting point, screen, bag and seal the boxes. At 3 pm, we take a flight to Shudu Airport. At Shudu Airport, we are divided into two routes, one to Hong Kong Island and one to the capital. Then we are transported from the capital to Seoul and Tokyo."

"If we can adjust the time well, we are confident that within two and a half days, the Liangshan Prefecture's matsutake mushrooms will appear in Tokyo's farmers' markets."

"If the whole process is kept cold, it will take two and a half days. It's really exciting..." Matsui couldn't help but nod.

"But the cost will be very high." Zhou Zhi said with a smile: "It really fits the old saying in Shuzhong - tofu costs as much as meat."

"I'm not sure about the price in Korea, but the market price of matsutake in Tokyo is about 1,500 yen per 100 grams."

"One hundred grams? Why is it such a strange unit?" Li Yutang was a little confused.

"Because matsutake mushrooms are sold by the piece in the island country, the wealthy buy them by the bunch." Zhou Zhi said, "One thousand five hundred yen per hundred grams, which is 15,000 yen per kilogram, which is about 7,000 yen per pound. Divide by eight, it's about 800 yen per pound."

"More... less?" Just now he said 1,500 yen per 100 grams, and no one had any idea. Now that Zhou Zhi had converted it, Li Yutang's eyes almost popped out: "800 per pound?!"

"Eight hundred yuan per kilogram doesn't make much money. We need to build cold storage, refrigerated trucks, cold chain workshops, and packaging, foam boxes, ice packs. There will be several flights next, and each city will also have to build or rent a transit cold storage near the airport. In addition to these troubles, we also have to connect with the other party's market, including advertising and investment..." Zhou Zhi counted the conditions on his fingers and shook his head: "This is a fresh product, and the bulk of the money goes to the airlines."

"That's true. The air routes are too long..." Li Yutang also reacted. If the price wasn't so high, no one would be willing to go through all this trouble.

Moreover, fresh goods are different from dried goods. Once there is a mistake in any link, they will be worthless after the shelf life.

"It is an opportunity, but also a challenge." Zhou Zhi said: "Governor Li, we must not forget that the ultimate goal of building this pipeline is to provide a good outlet for the high-value economic fruits and flowers produced in Anning Valley. This is one of the keys to whether the agricultural economy of Anning Valley can be upgraded."

"Yes, aviation and railways. We have some experience in railways, but air cargo is indeed a shortcoming that must be made up!" said Li Yutang.

"Fortunately, whether it is cherries or pomegranates, it will take several years to bear fruit, and the yield is doomed to be low at the beginning. Matsutake and chicken mushrooms, regardless of weight, volume, and value, are very suitable as products in the exploration period." Zhou Zhi said: "Two years, no more, no less, just right."

Li Yutang knew why Wu Renzhong had made such great progress during this period of time. He was now gradually becoming familiar with Zhou Zhi's style. That was because of his sound thinking.

His thinking is not point-like or line-like, but network-like. He can always find the correlation between many seemingly independent points and connect them in various ways, gradually condensing the scattered forces from all aspects into a combined force. As a leader of a state, he admires this ability. (End of this chapter)