Extraordinary Genius Chapter 373 – Shortage of farmers in Russia?

After settling the work at the mining company, Feng Yu was dragged to a restaurant by Kirilenko. It was time for lunch. You mentioned that you wanted beer yesterday evening? Today we shall drink beer.
Duang~~~
A huge barrel of beer was placed on the table. Feng Yu’s eyes nearly popped out. Do Russians drink beer by barrels?
This was a whole barrel of beer. There were at least 10 liters. It was equivalent to 20 bottles! Damn, Kirilenko was also good at drinking beer?
“Director Feng, I heard from Director that you like to drink beer. Director does not like to drink low alcohol content liquor. So, I will be accompanying you to drink beer. Let’s have a barrel each first. If it is not enough, we can order more.” Mozgov said and raised his mug to Feng Yu.
Order more???
This was 10 liters of beer. A barrel each? Even if this was plain water, he could not finish! Feng Yu realized that there was no way to compete with these Russians when it comes to drinking!
“Brother Ki, you…… Fine. Let’s drink beer.” Feng Yu had wanted to ask Kirilenko to help out, but he saw Kirilenko holding a glass of vodka. If Feng Yu were to choose the liquor to get drunk, he would still select beer over vodka. At least he would feel better if it was beer.
Mozgov and Feng Yu chug down a mug of beer, once their 1-liter mug was filled. This was Russian’s drinking culture?
To stop them from forcing him to drink, was to talk to them. Make the other party busy and have no time to raise his mug.
“Brother Ki, how are the Super Fans selling?” Feng Yu looked at Kirilenko. He was determined not to look at Mozgov.
“Not bad. I did not expect an electric fan to blow out warm air. The best part about these fans was that they were not noisy and space saving.” Kirilenko replied. He was deeply impressed with Feng Yu. Feng Yu could always come up with interesting products that were popular with consumers.
Kirilenko knew that he does not have such talents. But he has a good friend named Feng Yu. Kirilenko still has control over some former Soviet Union’s sales channels, and Feng Yu’s most significant investment was partnering him.
That’s why Kirilenko only envied Feng Yu and was not jealous of him.
“What about the farming machinery? Our Machinery Company had developed some new plowing equipment. Do Russia need it?” Feng Yu wanted to promote his Machinery Company’s products. If he can sell his agriculture machines to Russia, that means that his technologies were getting better, and can even export to a developed industrial country.
Of course, it was also Bing City was located near the borders and it was cheap to transport his machines to Russia. There will be lots of profits. If Feng Yu were to export to other countries, the profits would not be this high.
Exporting his products to other countries had been Feng Yu’s goal. But Russia was not interested, then it would be pointless to think of other countries.
Kirilenko frowned and said in an apologetic tone: “Feng, we do not need these agriculture machines. Our own agriculture machinery might not be the best, but it was still on par with yours. Furthermore, Germany has been importing these types of machines into Russia. I do not think that China’s technology is better than Germany’s. Maybe now, your technologies have overtaken Russia, but the prices you gave me have no advantage over the rest of the competitors. I can help you sell your machines, but there will not be any profits for me. Do you need me to help you sell those machines for you? If you need, I can help you, even when there are no profits.”
Feng Yu was puzzled. He thought that the rates he had given to Kirilenko was the market rate and there was not much difference with China’s rates. How can there be no profits at this price?
“Brother Ki, are you joking with me? Russia is so big, and the rates I offered to you will not let you get profits?”
“Feng, although Russia is big, lots of farms were abandoned. Even many of our own agriculture machinery factories had stopped operating. Russians do not like farming.” Kirilenko replied helplessly.
Feng Yu suddenly remembered that as during the decline of the Soviet Union’s industrial, the agriculture industry was also affected. This was also the reason why the Soviets had a shortage of food.
When the Soviet Union was still a superpower, they had focused too much on their heavy industrial industries. This had created an imbalance and had affected other industries. The agriculture decline will continue until the end of the century. It was only after the year 2000, Russia’s agriculture starts to recover.
The food production in Russia now, was less than 30% of the Soviet Union when it was at their peak. Russia was formerly one of the world’s top food exporter. However, it had become one of the world’s top importer of food. Even when Feng Yu left his previous life, Russia still had not reached its peak during the 80s.
Of course, several factors limited the growth of Russia’s agriculture industry. Russians prefer to work in factories than the farms. The Russian government also did not provide enough support for the agriculture industry. Although Russia has a vast land area, the land was divided into small parcels.
Those land parcels were too small, and there was no need for farming machinery if it was converted into a farm. There was no need for their people to buy a tractor as there were not much farming work. The tractor will be left idle most of the time. Russia at this time was still similar to the time under the Soviet Union. Most of the land still belongs to the government. Only some parcels were own by individuals. The government still do not allow individuals to purchase the land parcels and combine into a big farm.
Feng Yu remembered in his previous life, many people from Longjiang province went to develop land within the Russian’s border for farming.
The Russians do not grow crops, but they rent their land to the Chinese. Renting out their land was not illegal. Some had cultivated land illegally. But they just gave the local authorities some money, and they were allowed to grow crops there. Russia’s corruption was worse than China. One could tell from the way Kirilenko got his hands on those restricted items and sold to Feng Yu.
Feng Yu had heard about the used tank being modified into tractors in his previous life. He heard that it was done by those Chinese that had gone and set up farms in Russia.
That means Russia does not lack farming equipment. They require farmers. They had lots of good fields but were abandoned. China, on the other hand, had too many farmers and had a shortage of farms.
Even in places with a low population, like Longjiang, there were vast areas, but there was still not enough land for the farmers. If Feng Yu could help Russia get farmers, then it would also solve Longjing province’s oversupply of farmers issue. This could also help to increase the farmers’ income and help China’s economy. At the same time, this can improve the relationship between China and Russia. This was killing many birds with one stone.
Feng Yu leaned forward towards Kirilenko: “Brother Ki, what do you think if I can supply farmers to Russia to grow crops and then sell the crops to Russia?”
Kirilenko stared at Feng Yu: “What are you saying? You can supply farmers? Those that know how to grow crops?”
Feng Yu: “……” Which farmer does not know how to grow crops?
“Of course. But will your government allow people to rent your land? That means rent the fields from the government and combine it together as a bigger field. This could solve your government’s issue of shortage of farmers, and your government could purchase cheaper crops. Your country will no longer need to depend on the importation of food. What do you think?
“How many farmers can you get?” Kirilenko asked excitedly.
“At least over 1,000 farmers. Each of them can handle at least 50 hectares of land. That is 50,000 hectares. This is the minimum!”
“Feng, you have lunch with Mozgov first. I need to make an important phone call!”