There is a saying all over the world: "I don't have that American time to talk nonsense with you!"

It would be as if America's time was precious.

Of course, some people think that when that sentence was circulating, the United States was the world's number one brokerage power, and people's time was of course the most valuable.

Perhaps, the reason is not alone.

In any business society, time is precious. It's just that Americans' concept of time seems to be more recognized.

For Americans, there is a clear separation between working hours and rest periods. Everyone will be very careful about what they are going to do today. What to do at what time of the day. Schedules rarely change because of someone else.

A lot of people don't talk about business during their breaks, that's his personal time.

And the richer you are, the less time you have for yourself. Because the richer he is, the bigger his business plate is, and unless he is in charge, he will have little time to rest.

And Link has a big problem with timing. He actually has a lot of business on his hands. He basically handed over those businesses to others. But he didn't completely let go. Different companies have different things to deal with, and the time is difficult to master.

In particular, he has been doing a lot of family affairs recently. He even put the two children who were about to be born first. If he only has one company, he can do all the work in advance and then give himself a maternity leave. But there were so many companies, he didn't know that company would suddenly have something for him to deal with.

If he doesn't do business for a few months. He won't be able to control those companies.

It was fast to August. Because Martha has to deal with the National Children's and Youth Art Competition, he has more things to deal with. And Jessica is about to enter her due date. He didn't dare to go too far, he just wanted to have a doppelganger technique.

Fortunately, in late August, the preliminary round of the "Hannah National Children's and Youth Art Competition" ended. The final will not be played until November. So Martha finally pulled out.

Martha had come to Ozette to report to him about the art competition.

"Well, we need to pay more than $4 million for the souvenirs of the contestants. ”

Four million dollars is a lot of money. But Link didn't even frown.

"We've done a good job of publicity. Therefore, there are more than 683,000 young contestants participating in this competition. They came from forty-three states. Our souvenir standard is under $5 each. In addition, we need to pay for courier fees, as well as labor costs. "Mailing so many souvenirs also requires a lot of manpower to do this work.

Link tapped his fingers slowly on the table for a long time before he said, "If the number of contestants does not exceed two million, it will be according to the current standard." His budget for the tournament is $30 million a year. Of that amount, $15 million is going to the states to organize the preliminaries, and the rest of the money is the real expense of the tournament.

"Okay. ”

Link asked again, "Are all the places in the finals decided?"

"Yes, every competition, every age group has decided the finals. This time, there were 86 players in each group participating in the finals. ”

Link nodded and said, "For the next finals, you are in charge of the people under you." You don't have to do it yourself. ”

Martha nodded and said, "I have already selected two good people among the people who assisted me this time, and let them cooperate in the matter of being in charge of the finals." ”

"That's good. "Martha may not be the best manager, but the speed of her progress and her attitude to work make Link quite satisfied. But now he felt that all the work outside of Ozette's company in his hands was handed over to Martha, and then Martha communicated with him, which might not be the best. "You arrange an assistant for me. Mainly responsible for my liaison work and can help me arrange my work schedule. ”

"Is it a special assistant?"

Link nodded and said, "Pretty much what it means." Anyway, I need someone like that to help me now. ”

Martha smiled and said, "I'll help you choose a few suitable people for you to choose from." But what do you want? male or female, and the ability to work? ”

"Preferably male. "It's easier to do things that way. "Requires knowledge of multiple Chinese. You can't be too old. Of course, the most important thing is to be willing to work at Fox. ”

"Would you rather pick from the team or hire from outside?" she recalled, thinking that few of the team could meet Link's requirements.

"It's best to pick and choose from your team, and if there's really no good fit, hire outside. ”

Martha thought for a moment and said, "Can I announce your decision in the team?"

Link laughed and said, "Of course." After his idea was announced, it didn't matter if she could find the right person on her team. But that also gave her men a signal. There are many opportunities to work in her team. If no one can compete for the position, it's because they're not good enough.

That should push them to work harder to improve themselves. That's good for Martha and good for him.

Martha left, but she left a dozen papers. That's all Link needs to know.

So he could only stay in the study and continue to work.

The first document was about a meat processing plant under construction in Texas. He glanced at it and knew that the project was ahead of schedule, so he put it aside.

The second is about the negotiation of the site selection of Strus Electronic Technology. All he had to do was know about it.

He picked up the third, which was a summary of the work done on the breeding of alpacas in Peru. For the time being, he also put it down.

However, the next one is the first investment inspection report made by Hans Investment in more than a year.

Martha hadn't mentioned the report at all, and he couldn't help but look at it carefully.

This is a survey of world agriculture. The industries surveyed in the report are not just food farming. This is a survey of big agriculture.

This report has at least 50,000 words. The content covers forestry, animal husbandry, aquaculture, grain cultivation, economic planting, as well as technical research on agriculture from all over the world. At the same time, the development of those agricultural industries is also analyzed and predicted.

Many people feel that agriculture is an unprofitable industry. But that view is quite one-sided.

Martha's report also pointed out that before 2008, U.S. agriculture had long relied on government subsidies to stay afloat. However, after 2008, due to the impact of the economic crisis on the financial sector, capital was shifted to agriculture and agricultural product futures. At the same time, changes in the world's climate and changes in the policies of various countries on the export of agricultural products have caused the prices of agricultural products to rise sharply.

For example, corn. Because of the promotion of biofuels in the United States and the increase in demand for corn in the livestock industry in some countries, capital has targeted corn as an investment target. Since 2008, large maize farms have been able to profit without relying on subsidies.

Not only corn, but also wheat, rice, and soybeans have risen in trade over the past decade, although prices have fluctuated. Today, the international price of those grains has increased by at least 80 per cent compared to a decade ago.

In addition to the increase in the price of international trade in rations and grains, the prices of some bulk international trade agricultural products, such as cocoa and coffee, have also continued to rise. These food ingredients have risen by at least 100% in the past decade.

The report also points out that not only is international trade in agricultural products on the rise, but retail prices of food in countries around the world are also increasing at a high level.

European countries, in particular, have seen an increase of more than 70% in almost all food products over the past decade. The largest increases were in chocolate and coffee drinks. Both of these are more than 150% increases.

When Link saw this, he felt that the message was: "You can invest more in agriculture, and you can consider international investment." ”

Sure enough, the report made a prediction on the development of some agricultural products in the world and put forward some suggestions.

According to the report, food prices will remain high over the next two decades. Africa has the greatest potential for food production and consumption in the world.

Agricultural production in Africa is still very backward, with large tracts of arable land. However, some African countries have entered a period of political stability, and the economy has begun to grow at a rate of more than 6% per year, and it can be judged that the demand for food in these countries will increase rapidly.

Some of Asia's most populous countries with high food supply pressures have rented or bought land in Africa for agriculture.

"Developing agriculture locally can reduce production costs and diversify risks. ”

This sentence in the report made Link feel meaningful. He doesn't really care about reducing costs and stuff like that. But diversifying the risk depends on what the risk is.

He kept looking. The rest is the suggestion.

Martha's team suggested buying or renting land in Africa and South America to start new farms and establish local food processing systems.

And the truly sparsely populated Australia is also one of their targets. However, they are less optimistic about Australia's agricultural prospects. Because Australia has experienced a major drought for more than three consecutive years in the past 20 years. The soil there is not effectively exchanged on a small isolated continent, and the fertility of the soil is relatively low. And the land is seriously salted. And the good thing is that the farm plots there are huge. It is also not uncommon for a single farm of more than a million acres to occur.

The report recommends that large areas of pasture could be purchased in Australia for livestock farming. And a meat processing plant was established in the local area. At the same time, they also mentioned that goats are very adaptable to the arid climate of the Australian outback, so they can also choose to breed goats.

The report concludes with an investment initiative. Martha hopes to buy land in South America to start a coffee plantation. Coffee is a worldwide beverage and demand is rising, and the major consumer markets are unable to grow coffee, at least not enough to produce it.

Peru's mountain forests are sparsely populated, and they have a good relationship with the Peruvian government because of their cooperation with the Little Alpaca Project. Martha believes that this project can be operated in Peru.

The best report also mentions that "the coffee industry has a market of more than $100 billion a year. It is recommended to initiate the control technology of coffee diseases. ”

After reading the whole report, Link thought that Martha's idea of starting a coffee plantation seemed like a good idea. Coffee is like a cigarette, and people who are used to drinking it will feel uncomfortable if they don't drink it for a day. It's a just-in-demand product. As long as it is planted, there is no need to worry about not having a market.

In particular, the last mention of the report is the study of coffee disease control techniques. That's exactly the right match for Benehans' expertise. He thought it was a trick.