Expand Sugar Beet Planting Area

After circling around the Sugar Refinery, the two did not get out of the carriage, but stayed in the carriage for a while to continue watching the actions of the merchants who had just bought White Sugar.

They had barely left the Sugar Refinery when they were immediately surrounded by other businessmen still in line.

"I'll add half the price, sell it to me!"

"Only half the price? I'll pay double!"

The merchants started bidding against each other, making the area in front of the Sugar Refinery lively again.

These merchants wanted to buy the White Sugar that the lucky three men had just acquired from them. Judging from their expressions, they were all somewhat hesitant. They weren't selling yet, probably to see if anyone would offer a higher price.

Victor and Rabik watched for a while longer, and then Victor gave the order to the driver, "Continue on to the Sugar Beet Plantation."

For these merchants, the crucial question became how to dispose of the White Sugar —whether to transport it directly or resell it to larger chambers of commerce.

But whatever the decision, it seems to have nothing to do with Victor and his group. After all, the Two Rivers Territory has already gained a considerable profit from this transaction.

According to Victor's pre-arranged White Sugar Getze for Two Rivers Territory, the current selling price of White Sugar should be one Silver Coin per kilogram, while the cost is only three copper coins.

In this way, a net profit of up to seven copper coins can be earned for every kilogram of White Sugar sold!

More importantly, this huge profit belongs entirely to Two Rivers Territory and does not need to be handed over to any third party.

After the Civil War ended, the Vela Region enjoyed a long-awaited peace and tranquility.

At this time, the Raine Kingdom showed great tolerance and benevolence towards the nobles in the newly conquered territories. They implemented a special preferential policy: for the next three years, all nobles residing there would be exempt from paying any taxes; moreover, all independent nobles would no longer have to pay a substantial annual pension to the Grand Duchy as before.

This preferential policy undoubtedly brought huge economic benefits to many nobles, but the biggest beneficiaries were the few high-ranking nobles, since they had high titles and had to pay the most in annuities.

Victor, who was recently ennobled as Marquis, also enjoyed these preferential policies, and even the commercial taxes on goods sold in the kingdom were greatly reduced.

As a regional lord, Victor shoulders many heavy responsibilities, including managing his vast territory, maintaining local order, and developing local industries. Without sufficient financial support, achieving these goals would be virtually impossible!

But now things are much better. With this generous gift from His Majesty the King, Victor can finally go all out and make a name for himself!

So, without hesitation, he made a surprising move: he drastically reduced the price of White Sugar from its original high price to just over 20% of its original price!

So the question is, why did Victor so drastically lower the price of White Sugar?

The reason is actually quite simple: he wanted to seize this rare opportunity—to make full use of the precious three-year tax exemption period—to go all out to promote the White Sugar business in the Two Rivers Territory, striving to make it quickly cover the entire Vela Region and gradually move into the broader domestic market of the Kingdom.

In addition to the significant price reduction, another important measure for Victor to promote its White Sugar is its upcoming visit to Sugar Beet Plantation.

This place is located in the southeast of Wood Fort Town, about 15 kilometers away. The entire farm covers a vast area of nearly 10 square kilometers and is home to 1,500 serfs and more than 400 head of livestock!

The soil here is exceptionally fertile. Moreover, the farm has a complete irrigation system that ensures every inch of land receives ample water, allowing crops to grow vigorously.

Undoubtedly, these farming conditions were carefully prepared by Victor, making it an ideal location for him to vigorously develop the Victor beet industry.

As the carriage slowly entered a wide-open area, Rabik unhesitatingly led Victor off the carriage and pointed to the farmland in the distance, enthusiastically introducing it to him. "Marquis lord, look, that's the sugar beet planting area we've painstakingly cultivated this year! A rough estimate is over two thousand acres! Adding to that the one thousand acres of fertile land we successfully reclaimed last year, the total area of sugar beets we've planted so far has reached over three thousand acres!"

Then, Rabik continued in detail, "According to my prediction, the yield per acre of cultivated land should easily exceed 4,000 kilograms; while the yield per acre of the newly developed land this year is estimated to be stable at around 2,000 kilograms. In this way, when the harvest season arrives, we can harvest more than 8,000 tons of sugar beets!"

Finally, Rabik added with a broad smile and full of confidence, "Based on the improved new process of the sugar factory in our territory, this batch of beets can yield at least 1,500 tons of high-quality white sugar and other related products!"

This ample supply is not only enough to easily satisfy the entire Vela Region's market thirst for sugar, but it could even supply the Raine Kingdom!

Rabik's face was filled with excitement, his eyes gleaming as if he were awestruck by the enormous number before him. A slight smile played on his lips, perhaps as he imagined the immense profits and returns this batch of White Sugar would bring to their territory!

However, Victor remained unusually calm and composed in the face of such astonishing figures. He thought to himself: Although this year's White Sugar production has indeed increased significantly compared to the first production year, this number is still far from enough.

Even after a brutal and intense Civil War, the total population of the Vela Region still reached eight or nine million!

Of these, at least one-third were not slaves, which is nearly three million people!

It's just a mere 1,500 tons of White Sugar. If it were distributed equally among everyone, each person wouldn't even receive half a kilogram!

What good could such a pitiful amount of White Sugar possibly do? It probably wouldn't even last a few days if used to make sugar water...

Victor stood at the edge of the field, gazing at the vast, boundless beet field that stretched out like a dark purple velvet carpet. He silently stared at this field promising a bountiful harvest, a strong sense of satisfaction welling up within him, yet at the same time, he still felt something was missing.

At that moment, Rabik, who was standing to the side, was basking in the pride of the abundant fruits of his hard work on this land. However, when he heard Victor suddenly utter those words, he was jolted back to reality and stared at him in astonishment.

"This output is still not enough?" Rabik stared wide-eyed, repeating incredulously. He simply couldn't understand why Victor was so dissatisfied.

After all, the area planted with sugar beets was only a mere 100 mu two years ago; but last year, that number had soared to 1,000 mu, a ninefold increase.

This year, they continued their efforts and doubled the planting area for sugar beets again! Faced with such an astonishing increase, the Marquis still made an even higher demand—to double the planting area again next year!

Rabik advised, "Marquis lord, think about it. If we were to grow so many sugar beets, the demand for manpower would be enormous!"

After all, sugar beets are already more labor-intensive to grow than wheat, and now the planting area needs to be expanded even further... How could the serfs on the farm possibly manage that?

Even if we successfully plant such a large area of sugar beets, next year's harvest would likely see White Sugar production soar to over 3,000 tons! What if the market can't absorb such a massive quantity and we can't sell it all?

Another important point is that the Sugar Refinery in our territory is configured with its production scale and equipment based on the existing sugar beet production.

Currently, we can only process about 15 tons of sugar beets per day at most. After the large-scale sugar beet harvest at the end of the year, we must rack our brains to find ways to increase the factory's capacity! Otherwise, wouldn't all these sugar beets be wasted?

Victor gently patted Rabik on the shoulder and said in a firm and steady tone, "If we don't have enough manpower, then we'll find a way to increase it!"

After all, our territory will be receiving nearly 100,000 new immigrants this year. So, we could have Powell send a few thousand people to support this area.

Furthermore, if we lack farm tools or animal power, there's no need to worry. We can simply contact the Agricultural Department for assistance. They will certainly fully cooperate and support our work."

He paused slightly, his gaze shifting to the busy serfs not far away, before turning back to Rabik and continuing, "As for the Sugar Refinery's current processing capacity... well, actually, we just need to add some more related production equipment."

This is a minor issue for our local Machine Factory! I'm confident their professional team can handle it easily."

Finally, Victor reassured Rabik, "As for the sales channels, you don't need to worry too much!"

In August, I will personally travel to the kingdom's mainland. With my connections, it shouldn't be long before I can successfully establish local sales channels!