Chapter 58: Grains

  Although China is not the country with the largest territory on earth, its total area is not small either. However, it has the largest population. Therefore, although China is one of the world's largest grain producers, it is not a grain-exporting country and sometimes even needs to import some grains.

  Ordinary people, having money to buy several bags of rice is not a big deal, the country does not lack this amount of grain, and naturally will not pay attention. However, if Du Le buys hundreds of millions worth of rice, wheat, flour, etc., without a clear purpose (such as for food processing or grain products), it will definitely attract the attention of regulatory agencies.

  So, Du Le's first thing to do after returning to his new residence in Fuyong City was not to rush to contact wholesalers, but to collect some useful information on the internet. For example, the recent international grain situation.

  The world's number one power is undoubtedly M country. Anyway, M country has money, strength and influence, and according to the comprehensive national strength division, it is the first. The strong comprehensive national strength of M country is reflected in all aspects, and agriculture is one of them. M country's grain not only can be self-sufficient, but also accounts for about half of the world's export volume, even if affected by the global economy, it will not be less than 40%. Logically speaking, with such a rich grain production, M country should be the best place to buy grain, and the price should not be too high under the condition of abundant grain. But in fact, it is not the case. The reason is simple, because M country is a standardized social nation, with too many rules and regulations, plus agricultural protection subsidies and other protective measures. It's obviously not easy to buy large quantities of grain in M country. Even more, it may expose Du Le's secrets.

  Northern Country E is also a major grain producer and has good exports, but unfortunately, the country has recently suffered from many natural disasters. Now people are not thinking of exporting at all, they are all thinking about stockpiling.

  And South America's A country is also a major grain-exporting country, but this country is too far away, Du Le automatically ignored it.

  After ruling out other options, Du Le's thoughts turned to several countries in Southeast Asia, especially T country.

  The fragrant rice of T country has a large market in Hua country, Du Le has seen several different brands of T country's fragrant rice in the supermarket. Now that I think about it, T country must have a lot of stored rice specifically for international trade.

  Du Le's reason for choosing T country also had another idea, which was that when the time came to negotiate, he could use gold directly to purchase, so as to avoid having to exchange currencies himself. The difference in price would be a significant loss if it were too much, and Du Le would also feel heartbroken. Moreover, T country has never been a strong nation, and its currency is not considered very stable internationally, while gold is relatively popular, and using gold might even bring some benefits.

  Of course, all of this is Du Le's self-imagination, as for the actual situation, he still doesn't know. However, since his mind is made up, then he must go and do it.

  Domestically, a batch of grain must be purchased. Before implementing imports from abroad, it is necessary to increase the reserve by a certain amount first. Du Le let Liao Bingkun purchase a batch of wheat flour and corn flour in the name of making biscuits in the factory, so as to ensure that there will be no food shortage crisis in the mountain villa in the short term.

  Now, the price of rice is rising step by step with the occurrence of natural disasters in major grain-producing countries. The price of Thai rice has long exceeded $1,000 per ton in international food prices. Converted to RMB, it is also around 2.5 yuan per catty.

  No matter what, Du Le still had a last resort in his heart. If all else failed, he could only take a risk. Fortunately, the mountain villa discovered an energy stone mine. Every day, several energy stones would be found. And these energy stones were Du Le's last resort.

  Buying grains in bulk is always eye-catching, no matter where you are. However, when going to Thailand, Du Le doesn't need to conceal his identity. The first thing to do is to go and get a personal passport.

  China has a large population, and not every citizen will go abroad, so passports are not as essential as ID cards for everyone. They are only needed when going abroad, but like ID cards, they must be applied for in person.

  Fortunately, Fuyong City and Fujiazhou City are both cities in Dongnan Province, and Fuyong City is also the provincial capital of Dongnan Province. For handling passport-related matters, Du Le didn't need to make a special trip back home; he could just go to the Exit-Entry Administration Bureau in Fuyong City to take care of it.

  Two weeks later, Du Le finally received his passport. Afterwards, Du Le went to a travel agency and signed up for a five-day tour group in Thailand.

  Before leaving for Thailand, Du Le met with Jiang Yun and Liao Bingkun separately to inform them of his itinerary. At this stage, as long as the manager is not too foolish, it is impossible to make no progress, so Du Le felt it necessary to tell them about his next plan, so that they can have a clear idea in mind and better coordinate with him.

  As for the fast food restaurant plan that Qi Shifu is in charge of, it has also been officially launched. If Du Le hadn't had to go and buy grain himself to cope with the Chu State's grain shortage, he would have definitely paid close attention to this plan personally. But now there's no way, so he can only hand things over to Qi Shifu first.

  As for contacting the store and opening a wine house, Du Le could only put it on hold for the time being. The funding gap was too large, and he couldn't spend any more money, so he had to wait for a while until the funds were sufficient before continuing.

  Sitting on the flight from Fuyong to Thailand, Du Le's heart was still a bit nervous. This was his first time abroad, and he was unfamiliar with foreign people and things. His four years of university life were like being in a private space, as long as exams weren't a problem, everything was carefree. In high school, for the sake of the college entrance exam, Du Le could still persist in reading the newspaper, but after entering university, he rarely paid attention to national affairs, let alone follow international trends. What he paid more attention to were almost all topics related to student life and work.

  Du Le sat in the economy class, a total of 58 tourists, plus one translator guide, one doctor accompanying the group, and one staff member from the travel agency, all 61 people were in economy class. Looking around, they all wore uniform blue travel hats.

  Most of the people in the tour group were from the eastern province, speaking the same language and having similar backgrounds. With the tour guide's occasional humorous remarks, Du Le gradually put down his uneasy heart.

  Three hours later, the plane landed at T Country Manchester Airport. Under the arrangement of the travel agency, Du Le and his party took a special bus and entered the Manchester Grand Hotel very smoothly.

  Du Le took up a room by himself. This was all pre-arranged with the travel agency and an agreement had been signed, whereby Du Le would take a self-guided tour after joining the group, and then meet up with them again five days later to return to their home country together.

  Du Le's plan was actually quite simple, which was to establish a coordinate point in Thailand as well. In these five days, he needed to find a relatively safe place, mainly for data collection, collecting information on suitable Thai grain merchants. After returning home, he would transmit it back and conduct grain transactions. This way, he could maximize the concealment of his identity. Moreover, with the spatial storage function, there was no need to worry about transportation issues. Even in the worst-case scenario, if he couldn't buy grains, he could steal them, and when the time came, he could just leave without anyone being able to think of catching him in China. This was also one of the reasons why Du Le didn't want to deal with large quantities of grain domestically - the psychological burden of harming another country would be somewhat smaller.

  Of course, this is just a thought, and hopefully things won't get that bad. Du Le's isn't quite an extremely unscrupulous businessman yet.