With the guidance and explanation of the farm manager Franck, Chen Wen soon had a pretty good understanding of French farms.

France is the third largest fruit producer in Europe, with apples accounting for 58%, melons and peaches 10% each, as well as apricots, pears, kiwis, plums, strawberries and grapes.

One third of the fruit produced in France is exported each year, of which 77% is exported to European countries, 9% to Algeria in Africa, 6% to Middle Eastern countries, 4% to Russia and 3% to Asia. There are also small quantities exported to South America and Australia.

From the perspective of export categories, the largest export volume is apples, accounting for seventy percent of the total exports. This is followed by apricots, and then the rest of the fruits.

France is also the fifth-largest producer of vegetables in Europe, with a large output of tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, cauliflower, onions, chicory, leeks, cabbage and other vegetables. More than a quarter of the vegetables produced in France are exported each year.

The farm where Frank works is a sizable complex with both orchards and vegetable gardens, and the second arrondissement, which he directs, is the apple plantation.

80% of the apple varieties in France are traditional apple varieties such as Gala, Fuji, Golden Crown, Green Apple and Red Apple, but there are also some special varieties such as Jazz, Honey Crisp and Pink Lady, which account for about 16% of the total production.

In the apple park, Chen Wen saw many workers picking apples.

Among the people Mr. Chen knew, Mr. Mark-liang was currently engaged in fruit picking, and one of his roommates, Kim Woo-jin, was also earning money with a group of South Korean students.

Chen Wen told the names of Mark Liang and Kim Youzhen to Big Frank, who checked the list of workers and replied that there were no two people.

There are thousands of large and small farms all over France, and it is really a needle in a haystack to find two people, and Chen Wen is just asking casually.

Chen Wen asked: "My girlfriend and I will go to Bordeaux in the afternoon to inspect the red wine estate, is it the grape harvest season?"

Frank replied: "Depending on the variety, the harvest season is different. The white grape harvest begins in July and ends in August, and the Cabernet Sauvignon harvest takes place from the end of August to the last week of September. If you go to Bordeaux now, you've missed the grape harvest, but you can catch the first batch of new wines. ”

Chen Wen asked, "Can I drink new wine?"

Big Frank smiled: "I can definitely drink it, but it won't taste too good." However, if it is a medium-grade wine, there is no need to pay attention to the cellar age. ”

The four of them walked into the apple orchard.

Whenever they met a picker, they would take the initiative to salute Big Frank.

Chen Wen understood, this is the leader, the leader of the second district.

"Many of the workers here are backpackers, some are foreign students from various universities in France, and some are working holidaymakers who have entered the country on WHV visas. ”

Chen Wen had heard of this visa in his previous life, WHolidaysVisa, working holiday visa, New Zealand and Australia opened this visa to Huaxia, but European and American countries did not.

When he met three young people from the United States, Big Frank said, "They are all WHVers. ”

Chen Wen's English is the second knife, but Tang Jin's English is very strong, and the beauties chatted happily with a few old beauties.

didn't dare to delay other people's work, and after chatting for two minutes, Tang Jin returned to Chen Wen.

Chen Wen asked: "What did you talk to Lao Mei about just now, what safety did I hear, or something." ”

Tang Jin said: "Let me ask them, your US military is fighting in several countries, and your president told your people not to run around all the time, how can you dare to go abroad for work and vacation? Those old Americans said that they don't go to dangerous countries, and there is no problem in terms of security when they come to Europe and France." ”

Chen Wen thought to himself, the situation in France in the 90s was okay, small crimes were everywhere, and big troubles were invisible, but twenty years later, France could be regarded as a mess, and the big troubles followed one after another, endlessly.

Another group of black workers was encountered, who respectfully greeted Big Frank.

Looking at the majestic appearance of Big Frank and the cautious expressions of many farmworkers of all colors, Chen Wen saw the immediacy of the colonial farmer.

Big Frank motioned for Chen Wen and Tang Jin to pick apples, and the two of them each picked a red Fuji from the branch.

"In the orchard you can eat as much as you want, but if you take it out of the orchard, you need to pay for it," said Big Frank. ”

Chen Wen said with a smile: "If I had known this, I wouldn't have eaten so much breakfast today, alas, your mother's craftsmanship is too good!"

Big Frank laughed: "Chen, you are a humorous Oriental, it is rare for you to speak French so well!"

Chen Wen chewed an apple: "I am a student at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Versailles. ”

"I can see that you are a rich student, that you are a happy person," said Frank. ”

Chen Wen didn't answer this sentence, he asked a question that came to mind temporarily: "Mr. Franck, may I ask you, can a foreigner obtain permanent residency for buying a French farm?"

Big Frank replied, "Of course you can." ”

Chen Wen asked: "What is the investment amount?"

"I don't know the exact amount, but about a few million francs," said Frank. If you have such needs, I am willing to help you inquire. ”

Chen Wen happily exchanged phone numbers with Big Frank.

When he inquired about this, he didn't want to immigrate to France, he himself had a lot of big and small things, how could he have the heart to toss this thing.

Chen Wen has other intentions, as for what it is, he doesn't have a specific plan now, so he will ask the way first, maybe it will be useful in the future.

Talking to Big Frank about no farm, Chen Wen used French, Tang

Jin didn't know French, and Chen Wen didn't translate to her.

Big Frank pointed to the different varieties of apple groves and introduced their respective ripening times and the best time to pick, Chen Wen couldn't remember, and he didn't care about this.

Coming out of the orchard, Big Frank took Chen Wen and Tang Jin on a tour of the packaging processing factory.

A large warehouse in the form of a factory building with assembly line operations.

The apples collected by the pickers are weighed and paid by weight, but this wage is not the final wage.

The morning is the picking time, and the afternoon is the time for sorting and packing, and the same workers play different roles at different times.

Picking is based on weight, picking and packing is piecework, and adding up is the final wage calculation.

As for the sales of apples and other fruits, Big Frank briefly introduced that their farm has signed cooperation agreements with some distributors/distributors, so they don't have to worry about not being able to sell them.

This part of the content is consistent with Chen Wen's assumption, the planting and production of apples is not the most important, and the downstream shipment is the most critical place. If the sales/channels can't be solved, the apples will rot in the ground.

In the textbook that Chen Wen read since he was a child, it is introduced, "The beauty of all evils / The emperor would rather pour milk into the ditch than give it to the poor."

Chen Wen has an objective understanding of this kind of content, and there have been such examples in China in the 21st century in the previous life, apples, lychees, etc., the origin is unsalable, and the fruit farmers pour the fruit on the side of the road, or even cut down the fruit trees, but the price of fruit in the supermarket in the big city is still very high.

After walking around the farm for half a morning, Big Frank invited Chen Wen and Tang Jin, as well as his father, to the farm's canteen for dinner.

The cook is a 20-something-year-old boy who is a UK WHV visa holder. The meal he cooked, Chen Wen endured a huge headache and barely ate a little.

Tang Jin laughed quietly for a while and pinched Chen Wen's arm a few times.

Big Frank asked, "It's hard to eat, isn't it?"

Chen Wen sighed and said, "It's far worse than your mother's cooking!"

Big Frank laughed and invited Chen Wen to visit next time.

After lunch, Chen Wen bought 10 boxes of fruits, 6 boxes of apples, and the rest of various flowers such as kiwi and nectarine. All of them were crammed into the third compartment of the sedan.

Chen Wen and Tang Jin said goodbye to Frank and his son, and drove southwest to Bordeaux.

The vegetable garden of the Great Frank Farm has no need to be investigated, the content and process are the same as the orchard, and Chen Wen already understands the structure here.

The sedan headed southwest, and in less than an hour, it entered the Gironde.

Bordeaux is the capital of the Gironde department, and a boy Chen Wen met when he attended a visa interview in Shanghai was a freshman at the University of Bordeaux, but Chen Wen and Tang Jin's destination was not Bordeaux, and he didn't want to play with the boy at all.

It's not a beauty, what are you looking for him.