WCGW Chpt 155

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==Chapter 155 - What Could Go Wrong==
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6th February 3044, 3044
Thazi (Former Outworlds System)
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Derek Paulson, Business Advisor, was working on a fairly large-scale business plan for Major General David Mitchell. His only firm order had been to keep things very discreet and low key as he could. Their current operational location was beyond secret. The mining portion of the plan was not an issue, Solar Metals was a registered company. But taking advantage of the planet's agricultural production was a completely different problem. Before any agricultural produce was introduced into the Federated Suns/Commonwealth, it had to be inspected by the government. Though he was pretty sure Mr. Allard could deflect that problem. Marketing the ores from mining operations would not be an issue, those would be readily snapped up on the open market. Agriculture products was a different matter. Outside of the most common crops, a demand for the produce would have to be created from scratch. 
He loaded up a large file he had downloaded at the Inner End's Jump Point. It contained the going rate for literally everything sold in the system and surrounding systems. Traders could download such a file from every system in known space, it helped to fill the needs of every inhabited planet. In this case, it would help him develop an idea of what was in demand and the current price point. He studied the current demand levels. He began making notes, plus these notes would have to be updated on a regular basis so that the proper production makes it to the proper markets.
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Inner End (Federated Commonwealth)
Basic grains demand is being met, price point below normal market value. Demand for fresh fruit is high, price point is above normal market value. Low quality fish is raised locally, but demand for high value or high quality keeps price high.
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Delos IV
Basic grains demand is being met, below market value. Fresh fruit demand is high, above average value. Demand for high value fish products and even meats, above average value.
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Bastrop
High population combined with poor quality agriculture keeps prices for most items above market value. Prime target for deliveries of agriculture production.
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Beaumont
Higher population that Bastrop combined with poor agriculture keeps prices on all items above market value. Prime target for deliveries of agriculture production.
The local apples here on Thazi were fantastic and he had become a huge fan of them, eating 3-4 every day. One of the agriculturists had estimated that if done on a fully commercial scale, a harvest of several million tons could be achieved. If properly stored, in a controlled atmosphere, they could stay ripe for 6 months or longer. Normal apples currently went for 130 C-bills per ton, the experts agreed that the Thazi apples could easily fetch 150 a ton, possible more, but they could not really promise that. But it gave him a starting point. 
The agriculture folks were still conducting surveys across the vast continent which covered just over 98 million square kilometers. This he had learned from the planetologists. Currently, the total size of the planets farmland only consisted of about 12 thousand square kilometers, mainly vast fields of wheat, oats, potatoes and onions with some small fields of various fruits and vegetables, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, peaches, tomatoes, bell peppers and a rich coffee bean the locals harvested for their local brew. He had learned from the locals that the pirates had recently delivered 80 combines which they planned to use to triple the size of their current harvests. But they had a fuel shortage now that the pirates were no longer in charge, they lacked the ability to create the fuel needed by the fuel cells.
Long talks and even meals with the locals and he had discovered that they were not vegetarians, they also hunted and harvested the large amphibians that were native to Thazi. He had even eaten one of the large legs, each weighing almost a pound. It had been quite delicious. He had also learned that they caught a large species of crawfish in the rivers, streams and freshwater bodies. Each of those yielded almost 2lb of edible meat. It was another potential crop source for them to consider. He would have to study the feasibility of a commercial scale operation though.
Locating what appeared to be a full-scale cannery worth of equipment was blessing. Locating and harvesting the bounty in the oceans was a problem. They would have to purchase and import the boats that would be needed. Hire and entice skilled fishermen to move out here until such time that they could train locals to the job. Locally building the boats was not an option, not in the near-term sense anyway. He needed to know more about the cost of each boat and get some sort of estimate on how many they would actually need. He had no clue on this, only about how to market the catch itself. he had a ton of work to do, but most of the information he needed was not out here.
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