As a crucial link in this food war.
The Marcus, Aquino, and Xu families in Luzon had to work closely with ABCD.
They had to increase both their purchases of food in Luzon and the prices they paid.
"Our family can help purchase one million tons of rice and two million tons of corn," Xu Ying Ming said on behalf of the Xu family.
The head of the Marcus family spoke next. "Our family can also purchase one million tons of rice and three million tons of corn."
Taking into account his family's limits, Cairns Aquino named a more reasonable amount. "The Aquino family will purchase 500,000 tons of rice and one million tons of corn."
Catherine and the others spent more than ten minutes calculating the figures the three families had offered.
Together, the three families would purchase 2.5 million tons of rice and six million tons of corn in Luzon.
But those were only estimates. Once they began buying in large quantities, the prices of rice and corn in Luzon would soon rise.
ABCD only needed to push up food prices in Luzon, prompting local farmers to plant more rice and corn and masking the rising costs of fertilizer, pesticides, and agricultural machinery.
Still, Catherine's plan had to proceed steadily. They couldn't rush things and alert the farmers of Luzon, or the Fernando and Lopez families.
With the three compradors in Luzon taken care of,
Catherine turned her attention to Tianzhu, Siam, and Annam, three Asian rice-exporting regions. She instructed the rice-exporting companies there to cooperate by reducing exports for the time being, gradually driving rice prices up.
She also told them to build up their stocks, ready to flood the market with over ten million tons of rice and drive down global prices when Luzon's next rice