"Edward, I know it's rude to ask about income, but I've recently wanted to add a growing project, and I'd like to ask you how much money you make each year growing almonds? I've heard them say that almonds make a profit of $4,000 per acre. [Ran^Text^Library] [ ] Le - Wen "

Edward let out a burst of laughter:

"It's not that high, and the people who say that must be taking the market price as the price we are selling at the growers, and the price we get this year is only an average of $1.75 a pound, but it's better than last year."

"What about the yield per acre?"

"If you count the pulp alone, it's usually 2,200 pounds."

Xiao Yifei calculated that the income was almost 4,000 US dollars, and it seemed that they were treating the income as profit.

"Then I want to ask, the real profit should be more than 3,000 dollars, right?"

"There's so much to get it."

Xiao Yifei then asked his own question:

"I've also heard that walnuts can make tens of thousands of dollars per acre, so why don't you shovel out almond walnuts?"

"How can it be tens of thousands of dollars, nuts are not fruits, and they must be expensive fruits to reach tens of thousands of dollars. Where did you hear about it, it's not reliable. ”

Except for a few who had heard about it by chatting with other people, most of it had been seen in the morning in the research materials of the professors at Davis.

In fact, Xiao Yifei also found that there may be problems with these materials. He didn't know about the other varieties, but he knew the grapes of Napa. The professors found that the highest yields and the highest prices for grapes would have resulted in a profit of more than $20,000 per acre. But in fact, if you want to reach the highest price of more than 5,000 US dollars, then the output must be controlled at about 2 tons, so that there is only more than 10,000 US dollars of income, and then deduct other costs. The profit should be from 5 to 7 thousand dollars. On the other hand, if you want to reach the highest 6 tons, the unit price is estimated to be only 3,000 US dollars, although the total income is a little more. However, when the output is high, the cost of various materials and the cost of manual harvesting will also increase. Overall, the profit may not be as high as the profit of limited production.

Now, he has confirmed this from Edward's mouth, and it seems that the professors' information can only be used as a reference, and it is necessary to conduct field research when choosing a profession.

Then the two of them began to discuss the problem of fruit tree planting, and Edward took Xiao Yifei to the top of the building.

As far as the eye can see, there are square-shaped fields, and Edward says that most of the orchards in front of him are planted with almonds. Every year in early spring, the leaves have not yet grown, and the eyes are full of red and white apricot blossoms. This is the busiest time for bees, half of the beehives in the United States are shipped here, but demand is still in short supply, causing the price of pollination to rise every year.

Unfortunately, it was winter, and it was impossible to see the scene described by Edward, only neat rows of almond trees, with bare branches sticking out of the sky. As if shouting "We want temperature, we want spring." ”

The two of them came to the field again, neatly among the rows of fruit trees. Just like the vineyards, green manure grass is planted. Xiao Yifei saw the drip irrigation facility, where a water pipe was placed on the ground on each side of each row of apricot trees, and two eyes were pierced in the water pipe at the position of each apricot tree. This drip irrigation facility is too rudimentary.

For the cultivation of almonds, Edward said that it is very easy, pruning is to hire temporary workers, fertilization is by drip irrigation and fertilization at the same time, there are experts and associations for the prevention and control of pests and diseases, and there are professional companies for picking. And it is not harvested by hand, but by waiting for the apricot fruit to crack in the tree. The pits are exposed, and a vibrating harvester is used to shake the pits onto the plastic sheeting laid under the tree. Of course, it is also possible to use a more advanced integrated harvester.

After harvesting, the almonds are sold to processors, and it has nothing to do with the grower, just wait for the check.

After Edward said this, Xiao Yifei knew that it was so easy to make an almond orchard, no wonder he only made more than $3,000 per acre. Compared to the vineyards in Napa, pruning is manual, so let's not talk about that. (Of course, it's said to be mechanized now, but no one dares to use Napa yet.) The vineyard relies on manual harvesting of buds, pinching, tying and tying branches, so it's no wonder that grapes are so expensive to sell and earn so much per acre.

"Edward, don't lie to me, is it really that easy?"

"Of course it's easy, everything has an association."

The association he was talking about was the California Almond Growers Association, also known as the Sapphire Society. Founded in 1910, the association has since become the world's largest nut processing and marketing company. This company is not an ordinary company, it is made up of thousands of almond growers in California and more than 100 almond processors, that is, processors.

The Almond Association of California is on a mission to promote high-quality almond products and increase almond consumption worldwide. When people did not know much about American almonds, the Almond Association held various promotional activities through its representative offices in major cities in Asia, Europe, and the Americas to popularize and publicize them; They have developed a wide range of domestic and international markets to expand people's understanding and demand for almonds. After people accepted American almonds, the association began to research and develop the nutritional and health functions of almonds to further cultivate the market. The Almond Association spends millions of dollars a year on this purpose, cooperates with many universities in the United States and abroad, and hires personnel to conduct human clinical trials on a variety of indicators.

These activities must be funded, and the money actually comes from almonds, and the association's membership fee is two cents per pound of almonds, so that the Central Valley's annual production of nearly a million tons is enough to ensure that they have enough money to carry out public relations and propaganda campaigns around the world.

Thanks to the efforts of the Plantation Association, California produces 80% of the world's almonds, and they have made almonds a huge industry worth more than $1 billion. With 70% of its almonds exported, it is also California's largest food export.

(As an aside, why did the California Almond Association, which is both an association and a company, essentially an agricultural cooperative, succeed and ours fail?) ）

Xiao Yifei then asked:

"Is it just the case with almonds, or is it the same with other orchard projects?"

"I don't know about other projects, but that's not the case with walnuts anyway."

Xiao Yifei was much more relieved, because if the association was strong, Xiao Yifei would not be able to grasp more voice or even pricing power, nor would he be able to develop from upstream to downstream, and he would not be able to get more profits.

Xiao Yifei asked:

"How many acres did you plant?"

"It's 30 acres."

With an annual income of less than 100,000 yuan and two college students, it is no wonder that Shirley wants to go to Canada to study.

Edward drove Xiao Yifei to the plot he rented.

"It's this piece of land that I've negotiated with my owner to shovel and grow blueberries this year. Blueberries are more expensive and more profitable than almonds. ”

Xiao Yifei is no longer a novice who doesn't understand anything. He had already checked the information on blueberries,

Blueberry, known as the "third generation fruit", is one of the most unique small berry fruits with the most unique health care effects that have been developed in the world today, rich in anthocyanins, SOD and a variety of vitamins. Medical trials have proved that blueberries have obvious effects in relieving eye fatigue, preventing urinary tract infections, anti-cancer, delaying cranial nerve aging, enhancing heart function and improving immunity. Blueberries are also listed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations as one of the top five healthy foods for human beings, and have extremely high economic value.

According to the research of Davis professors, blueberries have a profit of $80,000 per acre, and even a sky-high profit of $100,000. When he saw it for the first time, he couldn't help laughing, it seems that every country has unreliable experts and professors. Although this profit is not reliable, it also shows that blueberries are indeed very profitable. Otherwise, he wouldn't have planned to grow blueberries in the Osiris space in the first place.

"Edward, I know that blueberries are high in price and profitable. However, it has not yet been concluded whether Oran is suitable for growing blueberries, so would you be too risky to do so? ”

Xiao Yifei is telling the truth, although California is an important source of blueberries in the United States, but the specific North of the Central Valley is not necessarily suitable for blueberries.

Blueberries are divided into two types: highbush blueberries and dwarf bush blueberries, among which dwarf bush blueberries are suitable for cold environments, such as the northeast of China, the northeast of the United States, Canada and other places. Highbush blueberries are generally suitable for hot and humid environments, such as Florida, San Diego in southern California, and the northernmost planting place in California is Fresno in the South San Joaquin Valley. So there is no precedent for any blueberry to be grown on a large scale in the Sacramento Valley.

"How could it be inappropriate? Let's go, I'll take you to see it. ”

Edward pulled Xiao Yifei back to his house, he pointed to the two trees in the backyard and said:

"You see, this is blueberries, it's sunny blue, I've been growing them for a few years, everything is normal, and every year blueberries are delicious."

Xiao Yifei thought to himself, you are considered garden planting, which is very different from field planting, but he is not good at persuading.

After dinner, Xiao Yifei drove back to the winery.

Originally, the route was supposed to be the shortest route according to the route taken by Shirley last time to the winery, but this route is nearly 100 kilometers of mountain roads. In winter, it was too dangerous to walk on the mountain road at night, so Xiao Yifei chose to go far and wide, and drove directly from Olland to Winster on Highway 5 and 505, and then took the morning route back to Napa Valley. Although this route is more than 20 kilometers away, it is only 40 kilometers of mountain roads, which saves a lot of time compared to the previous route.

Rao is like this, Xiao Yifei still took two and a half hours to return to the winery.

"I'm too tired today, you can choose a room to rest in."

Wang Nan also replied in a daze:

"Okay, I'm going to drink champagne tomorrow."

Xiao Yifei flew to her with a white eye, and you will die in champagne for the rest of your life. (To be continued)