Chapter 2 Soybean Crisis
The first thing Guo Yang thought of was that China officially joined the World Trade Organization on January 1 this year.

Then, in the next two years, the "soybean crisis" broke out in China.

As a large-scale soybean grower, Guo Yang was once promoted to grow soybeans by the agricultural department.

At the same time, because Guo Yang is accustomed to hedging in the futures market, he also has a relatively clear understanding of the trends of cotton, corn, soybeans and other futures in a dozen years.

Guo Yang had seen videos about the "soybean crisis" on Bilibili many times.

To this end, he also specifically learned about the development history of soybeans in China.

Before 1995, China was a net exporter of soybeans, but since 1995, China has become an importer of soybeans.

After China and the United States signed the "Sino-US Agricultural Cooperation Agreement" in 1999, China became the world's largest soybean importer in 2001.

From the second half of 2001 to 2003, due to the price gouging by U.S. grain traders, soybean contracts on my country's Dalian Futures Exchange began to rise continuously.

The price of soybeans doubled from 1700 yuan to 3499 yuan.

After that, the U.S. Department of Agriculture suddenly issued a statement saying that due to bad weather, it would lower the expected soybean inventory to the lowest point in more than 20 years.

As soon as the news came out, the global soybean price quickly soared to 4400 yuan per ton.

Faced with doubled prices, many Chinese soybean companies refused to accept it and began to reduce imports and use their stockpiled soybeans to cope with daily production.

In March 2004, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it would not increase soybean production. Since then, global soybean prices have rapidly risen to 3 yuan per ton, and there is no sign of stopping.

At this time, after holding on for half a year, Chinese soybean companies no longer have any soybean inventory.

In panic, China sent an agricultural product purchasing delegation to the United States in early 2004, which "snapped up" more than 4300 million tons of soybeans at a historical high price of 800 yuan per ton.

However, just one month after Chinese companies completed their rush to buy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture increased its soybean inventory again, and international financial speculators went short on the Chicago Board of Trade and began frantically selling soybeans.

In just two or three months, the price of soybeans plummeted from 5500 yuan/ton to 2200 yuan/ton, directly returning to the starting point of this round of crazy soybean price speculation.

Faced with the plummeting soybean prices, Chinese soybean companies that had just signed huge long-term soybean purchase contracts were all dumbfounded.

After this incident, China's soybean industry was severely damaged.

Guo Yang recalled this history with deep emotion.

It was already the end of May 2002, and the "soybean crisis" must have been brewing.

But he is not yet able to prevent the crisis from happening.

Ultimately, the fundamental reason for the "soybean crisis" is that my country has a large population, relatively little arable land, and food production cannot meet demand.

"Unless there is a particularly high-yield soybean variety, it will be very powerful."

Guo Yang murmured, then his eyes lit up, and he quickly opened the seed store, looking for soybean varieties.

All that comes into view is a page of soybean varieties, all of which are red and orange grades. Low-grade soybean seeds can still only be cultivated in a targeted manner.

Guo Yang directly chose the one with the highest price.

【Variety】:Soybean
【Characteristics】: This variety...has the characteristics of high yield, stable yield, high quality, multi-resistance, wide adaptability, and is suitable for mechanized production, with a yield of 1000 kg/mu...

【Price】: 9999 natural energy points.

Guo Yang felt like his brain was a little confused. The yield is 1000 kg per mu?
What kind of monster is this!
You should know that until 2023, my country's soybean yield per mu will only be more than kilograms.

The highest record for soybean yield per mu is 2020 mu of soybeans at the XJ Shihezi National Soybean Comprehensive Experimental Station in 15, with an average yield of 453.5 kg/mu.

But in 2002, was my country's soybean yield per mu 200 kilograms?

Guo Yang secretly clicked his tongue, how many times has it increased?
The disruptive yield, coupled with the characteristics of stable yield, high quality, multi-resistance, wide adaptability and suitability for mechanized production.

If such a seed came out...

'Soy crisis?'

What the hell is that!

For a moment, Guo Yang found it difficult to imagine what the scene was like.

It was just 9999 natural energy points, which didn't look like something he could afford in such a short period of time.

"Huh..." Guo Yang took a deep breath.

"The top priority is to make money quickly, accumulate natural energy as soon as possible, and maximize the value of the seed store as soon as possible."

Soybean futures were an opportunity for him. He was familiar with the history and knew something about futures, so he could take advantage of the opportunity to accumulate capital.

But the problem now is that we still have no money. You need capital to play futures.

Is there any way to make money quickly?

Just then, Guo Yang suddenly saw a football poster of the Chinese team hanging on the wall of the dormitory.

I saw the familiar people like Sun Taiyang, Tiezi, General Fan and others.

Football? The Chinese national football team in 2002?

Guo Yang smiled.

He has already made plans to make his first pot of gold.

That was the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup!
In his previous life, Guo Yang was influenced by his father and loved playing football since he was a child.

Also, because his father likes to buy football lottery, Guo Yang has a deep impression of this World Cup.

Especially the quarterfinals prediction!
This World Cup was full of upsets. Among the eight traditional powerhouses that were the most popular before the game, namely Brazil, Italy, Argentina, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany and England, four were eliminated.

Meanwhile, the new African team Senegal and South Korea, which had been in the dark all the way, advanced to the quarterfinals. In fact, there were more than 1.25 million lottery tickets in the country, with a bet amount of million, but in the end, not a single lottery ticket won the prize.

This resulted in more than 80 million yuan in prize money being rolled into a public welfare fund.

The Sports Lottery Center made a fortune from this, but the money was squandered in less than a year!
He used to feel annoyed when he heard his father repeating this matter over and over again.

Moreover, due to his father's long-term purchase of lottery tickets, there were often quarrels at home, which led Guo Yang to hate lottery tickets very much at one time.

I never expected that these memories that were once annoying could be of great help now.

"Today is the 21st, and the World Cup will start on the 31st."

"I have to hurry up and buy the lottery tickets in the next two days."

Guo Yang was about to get up, but he felt uncomfortable all over.

I still feel weak!

"Zizi..." The old dormitory door opened from the outside, making a harsh sound.

A smaller boy in plain clothes came in with a lunch box in his hand. Seeing Guo Yang sitting on the edge of the bed, he quickly said:
"Wake up! You must be hungry. I brought you some food. Eat it while it's hot!"

Bi Qiang, a native of Jinchang, Long Province, is also a poor student like Guo Yang.

But the difference is that Bi Qiang is extrovert and confident, and his personality is as strong as his name.

However, because of this, he often has quarrels and conflicts with other people in the dormitory, but actually he is a nice person.

Guo Yang's mind flashed with this person's information. He was indeed hungry, so he smiled softly and said, "Thank you, Brother Qiang. I'll give you the money later."

"No, I'm also doing an internship now. I brought this lunch box back for you from the company." Bi Qiang placed the lunch box on the long public table in the middle of the dormitory, opened the lid, and pushed it towards Guo Yang.

"Internship?" Guo Yang took the lunch box and the aroma of food hit him.

"Yes, I told you before, the Vegetable Research Institute of the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences, I just happened to have nothing to do so I went over to help earlier."

"Oh, my mind has been a little confused these past two days."

Bi Qiang walked back and forth in the dormitory twice, and seemed to think about it before saying:

"Why are you working so hard? Is life more important than studying abroad?"

"And I heard that your main competitor, Chen Yunpeng, not only has a mentor who is the dean of the college, but also has an uncle who is a big leader in the city."

After eating a few bites of food, Guo Yang felt a spicy taste in his mouth, and he seemed to feel a little more relaxed.

"I've thought it through. I don't plan to study abroad anymore."

Bi Qiang was surprised and said, "You gave up so quickly? Well, even though the country covers everything when you go abroad, there are still many restrictions."

Guo Yang nodded.

Bi Qiang didn't ask any more questions, thinking that Guo Yang had given up.

After taking a few bites of rice, Guo Yang panted and said, "The food in your cafeteria is good, especially the chili peppers, which are quite spicy."

"Of course, this is a new variety we have cultivated and we have just started to promote it. Although its appearance is not very good, it tastes good."

"You can eat this thanks to me."

It’s hard to promote peppers because they look ugly, Guo Yang complained silently.

He thought of his experience in his previous life when he planted 1700 acres of sharp and round peppers, some of the seeds being imported from Israel.

The advantages of foreign seeds are obvious. Take chili peppers as an example. Domestic chili pepper seeds can only be harvested twice, while Israeli seeds can be harvested three times. They also look good, have high market recognition, and a high sales price.

The only drawback is that the seeds are expensive. The average seed cost per acre is more than 1000 yuan, and each seed is nearly yuan.

When sowing, domestic seeds are mixed with sand and scattered, while imported seeds have to be placed one by one for fear of wasting them.

It's not just pepper seeds. In fact, even by 2023, many vegetable seeds in our country still rely on imports.

Onions, carrots, eggplants, tomatoes, potatoes, broccoli... Many of these most common vegetables are grown from foreign seeds, and some are even entirely dependent on imports.

For example, the most common white radish on people’s tables, most of its seeds come from South Korea. The price is more than 20 times higher than domestic seeds, but it still has more competitive advantages than local radishes.

But it was still 2002, and my country's seed market had just begun to be liberalized, and multinational seed companies had just begun to expand globally.

Although huge pressure from foreign seeds has already arrived, multinational companies have not yet adapted to the domestic market, and some varieties that are familiar to later generations have not yet been put on the market for sale.

For example, Pioneer Company’s corn, Pioneer 335, had a promotion area of ​​more than million mu in my country at its peak, and it crushed a number of domestic corn seeds for more than ten years.

Guo Yang thought of his seed store and felt more and more that he had a heavy responsibility.

Coming back to his senses, Guo Yang continued:
"Yes, yes, thank you, Brother Qiang. I will pay you back double in the future."

"Are you free later? Let's go buy some football lottery tickets together?"

Bi Qiang looked at Guo Yang in surprise: "Why are you thinking about buying lottery tickets? Aren't you just interested in doing research?"

"The Chinese national football team has entered the World Cup, so let's get ready to have some fun."

Bi Qiang smiled and said, "It seems that you have really thought it through, but you can only go buy it yourself when you have time. I will have to go to the test base to help."

Guo Yang was stunned for a moment, then thought of something: "So you came back specially to bring me food?"

"Yes."

(End of this chapter)