WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: LilGuyBlastoise
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Second Life of the Trade King ◈
Chapter 23: Canadian Hard Wheat (1)
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Canada.
While Australia was centered on corn and soybeans, Canada was strong in wheat and canola.
If I could secure Canada, it would not be an exaggeration to say I had boarded an express bus to becoming a major corporation.
“Yes. A Canadian wheat bulk carrier will soon arrive at Busan Port for a trial delivery. Around then, CWB's representative for Korea will come here to meet prospective new partners.”
As if it had been waiting for me, another connection had fallen into my hands.
Was this really luck?
“But how did an opportunity like this come to me?”
A faint smile colored the voice on the other end of the phone.
“Our Australian headquarters informally recommended Yeongdo Trading to the CWB. We told them you were the company that secured simultaneous consignment deals with Han-il Feed and Dae-il Sugar in a short time in the Korean market. Australia and Canada are competitors in the grain market, but within the broader framework of the Western grain-exporting nations, they are cooperative partners. Yeongdo Trading becoming stronger in Korea will ultimately benefit us as well.”
So it was not luck. The snowball that had started rolling from the Australian connection had reached Canada.
“When do you think the CWB meeting will be scheduled?”
“They will arrive in Busan sometime next week. The Canadian Consulate's trade office will contact you shortly with the exact date and location. It has been confirmed that Yeongdo Trading is among the meeting candidates.”
“Thank you, David Jo. This is a great help.”
“Mr. Kim, I hope you seize this opportunity. If you secure the Canadian line as well, Yeongdo Trading will become a true new hub of Korea's grain trade.”
After hanging up, I clenched my fist and cheered silently.
Perhaps she had seen it, because Yoon Seo-young asked in Seoul Korean colored by a dialectal lilt.
“Did something good happen?”
“Ah, Canada is considering a new supply channel for the Korean market. An opportunity has come up for us to squeeze our way in.”
“Does that mean we'll have a new client?”
“Nothing is certain yet. We're only one among many applicants.”
Seo-young parted her lips slightly and nodded.
“Ah... So it's like taking a test, and if you pass, they make you their client.”
“That's right.”
“Then what is CWB?”
In this era, most accountants were only expected to keep the books and make coffee, but I did not want to treat my employees that way.
People who had attended good universities and possessed sharp minds certainly had advantages over those who had not. But after living my life up to becoming a vice president at Glencore before my regression, I had realized that the insight to see through the essence of a matter did not necessarily come with a good education.
So I believed that the more I could teach someone with a great deal of curiosity, the better.
“It stands for Canadian Wheat Board. It is a grain marketing board established by the Canadian government. It gathers wheat and barley grown by farmers in western Canada and sells it abroad at the national level. Canadian farmers cannot sell the wheat they grow to anyone else. They can only sell it to the CWB. Then the CWB sells that wheat to foreign government agencies or major trading companies.”
“Then... it's different from private companies like those in Australia.”
Seo-young was quick to grasp the point. She was not slow on the uptake.
“Exactly. Australia's private grain majors send their grain to Korea through their own channels, but in Canada, the CWB has to sell everything through a single window. That is why securing the Australian line and securing the Canadian line are completely different matters for Yeongdo Trading. We entered Australia through our reputation as the Department of Trade's priority cooperation channel, but Canada is something we have to break into through direct negotiations with a national institution called the CWB.”
“Is that... possible?”
To her, it apparently seemed remarkable that a twenty-seven-year-old company president would even speak of negotiating directly with a national institution.
“As I said earlier, the possibility has opened up. The Australian headquarters informally recommended Yeongdo Trading to the CWB. A stronger Yeongdo Trading benefits Australia as well. That is why Yeongdo Trading is among next week's meeting candidates.”
“Wow, that's amazing. So are we importing corn and soybeans too?”
“Flour. Bread flour in Korea is currently dominated by the United States and Canada, you see. Everyone from neighborhood bakeries to major food corporations uses that flour. But Korean milling companies have been receiving Canadian wheat through general trading companies or the Agricultural and Fishery Products Marketing Corporation. In other words, the Canadian line has been a market open only to huge general trading companies and government agencies. If Yeongdo Trading gets a foothold there, various domestic milling companies will be able to order directly from us.”
Seo-young's mouth gradually fell farther open as she listened to me.
Having grown up in Busan, the scale of it all must have felt enormous to her.
“Wow, it doesn't feel real.”
It was understandable.
This old third-floor office overlooked Busan Port, with its strong salty smell. It certainly did not suit talk of transactions on a national scale.
“For now, it probably doesn't. But you should remember that our company's main clients are Australia's major shipping lines.”
“Oh! That's true. I was thinking too small.”
“That can happen. Now, let's prepare for the meeting.”
She straightened up and asked with sparkling eyes.
“What should I prepare?”
“A presentation. I'll explain everything step by step.”
“Yes!”
A few days later, a formal meeting request arrived from the Canadian Consulate's trade office.
When I opened the envelope and unfolded the document inside, it was written in both English and Korean.
The meeting was scheduled for ten o'clock the following Wednesday morning in the business room of the Busan Chosun Beach Hotel, now the Westin Chosun Hotel.
The CWB attendees were listed as Mr. Mark Williamson, Director of Asia Marketing at the Canadian Wheat Board, with Peter Ryan from the Trade Office of the Canadian Embassy in Korea attending as well.
There was one more sentence at the end of the document.
【This meeting will be conducted as a group evaluation, with the four Korean candidate companies meeting together in one place. Each company's presentation and question-and-answer session will proceed in turn.】
A group evaluation.
Rather than individual interviews, the candidates would be gathered at one table and compared.
It showed the CWB's intention to compare and evaluate the candidates directly on the spot.
For Yeongdo Trading, standing alongside major corporations, that put us at something of a disadvantage.
“Ms. Seo-young, the meeting will be a group evaluation. We need to organize our materials more clearly.”
“Yes, understood.”
From that afternoon onward, Seo-young began neatly organizing the English-language materials.
There were records of our Australian-line transactions, English translations of the consignment contracts with Han-il Feed and Dae-il Sugar, the certificate registering us as an Australian Department of Trade priority cooperation channel, and materials detailing Yeongdo Trading's on-site expertise at Busan Port.
But those documents were only the basics. Whether I won this deal or not depended entirely on my own abilities.
Compared with what major corporations would submit, those papers would be like an ant beside an elephant.
They were merely the minimum needed to sit at that table. To achieve a real result, I needed something else.
And I had an idea of what the CWB wanted.
9:30 a.m. on the day of the meeting.
When I arrived at the lobby of the Busan Chosun Beach Hotel, the air itself felt different from my usual Busan office. As befitted the hotel where foreign business meetings were most commonly held in Busan in 1989, businessmen in suits came and went while foreign guests asked questions in English at the information desk.
A twenty-seven-year-old president in a suit, carrying a leather briefcase, crossed the lobby and headed for the elevator to the business floor.
After arriving on the business floor, I gave my name at the information desk.
A Korean person who appeared to be a Canadian Consulate employee approached, handed me a name badge on a lanyard, and politely led the way.
The badge hanging from a long blue strap read: President Kim Hyun-woo, Yeongdo Trading.
“You are President Kim Hyun-woo of Yeongdo Trading, correct? I will show you to the waiting room.”
The moment I opened the waiting-room door and entered, I immediately sensed the atmosphere.
The room was wide and quiet. Catalogs bearing company logos were neatly arranged along one wall, and three reception sofas stood in a U shape at the center.
Three groups were already seated on those sofas.
The largest and most experienced-looking group occupied the center sofa.
What made the group of one man who appeared to be a department head in his fifties and two subordinates who appeared to be in their thirties stand out was the logo printed on their bags.
Il-sung Corporation.
The name badge on the man's chest read, Cho Seong-hun, Food Ingredients Department Manager, Il-sung Corporation. As befitted Korea's largest general trading company, he carried himself with obvious ease, lightly giving instructions to his subordinates.
Another group sat on the sofa to the right.
They appeared to be a department head in their fifties and an employee in their thirties, and the bag beside the department head bore a large bear logo.
Hanseong Flour Mills.
Korea's number-one milling company, and the largest single end user of Canadian wheat.
The final group on the sofa to the left consisted of a department head in the late forties and a subordinate in their thirties. Their suits were neat and their posture straight, but beside Il-sung Corporation in the center, the difference in stature was naturally apparent.
The department head kept checking their wristwatch, clearly tense. The company badge around their neck read: Jeong Tae-seok, International Grains Division, Daeseong Fisheries & Produce.
The moment I entered the waiting room, all three groups looked at me briefly.
Then they looked puzzled.
They could hardly help it. I had come alone, and I was far too young.
Manager Cho Seong-hun of Il-sung Corporation and the Hanseong Flour Mills department head briefly looked as though they wondered who I was. After checking my badge, they returned their attention to their materials.
Only Jeong Tae-seok, Daeseong's department head, reacted differently.
The moment Jeong Tae-seok saw me, they hesitated for a moment.
It was the reaction of someone who had clearly heard the name President Kim of Yeongdo Trading.
But they soon turned back to their subordinate.
All three companies were focused on the coming meeting, as they should have been.
I took the empty chair indicated by the staff member and, unlike the others, did not leaf through documents. I simply waited for the meeting to begin.
I occasionally felt people glancing my way, but I paid them no mind.
About ten minutes passed before the conference-room door opened.
Kim Jeong-hun, an employee of the Canadian Consulate, entered the waiting room holding a list.
“We will begin Group A at ten o'clock. All four companies, please come in. As previously announced, the CWB representative will evaluate you together in one room.”
At those words, Cho Seong-hun of Il-sung Corporation was the first to stride forward.
It made sense. Il-sung was likely the most confident.
As the groups filed into the room, they all glanced at me once more.
I could plainly see what they were thinking.
'That young person is going in with us too?'
That was probably it.
And when I took my seat last, Lee Man-gyu, the department head from Hanseong Flour Mills, finally spoke up.
“Weren't only companies of a certain scale allowed to participate in this meeting?”
It was a reasonable question.
The person whose nameplate read Mr. Mark Williamson responded.
“Are you referring to Yeongdo Trading? That company is fully qualified to attend this meeting.”
They had probably never even heard the name Yeongdo Trading before.
Everyone looked puzzled, then soon accepted it. Mark Williamson stood and spoke in English.
“Good morning, everyone. I am Mark Williamson of the Canadian Wheat Board. It is a pleasure to meet the four companies we are considering as candidates for a new CWB partnership in Korea today. This will be a group evaluation. We would like to hear each company's strengths, position in the Korean market, and vision for cooperation with the CWB in turn. Let us begin with Daeseong Fisheries & Produce.”
The atmosphere immediately settled, and Jeong Tae-seok of Daeseong Fisheries & Produce rose from their seat.
While a subordinate prepared the presentation using an overhead projector and transparencies, Jeong Tae-seok's eyes swept past me before they began in a tense voice.
“Then I will begin the presentation.”
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