Revitalize the existing 200-ton drying capacity, the Wushi corn purchasing and storage project is seeking 6 million yuan of five-year cooperative funds.
In Aksu Prefecture during the autumn harvest season, corn drying has long been a process that "depends on the weather". When high-moisture grain is harvested from the fields, if its moisture content cannot be reduced sufficiently, its storage and sales value will both be compromised. A completed and operational grain drying project in Wushi County is trying to use a ready-made 200-ton/day fully automatic production line to turn this bottleneck link into a profit source. At present, the project is seeking RMB 6 million in cooperative funds for site expansion and working capital for procurement during the autumn harvest season, with a cooperation term of 5 years.
The pain point lies not in equipment, but in turnover capacity
Wushi County is one of the main corn producing areas in Aksu. In 2025, the county's corn planting area is nearly 300,000 mu, with the maximum grain corn yield per mu reaching 949.6 kilograms, while the total corn planting area in Aksu Prefecture reaches 2.9 million mu. When high-moisture grain hits the market in a concentrated manner, drying capacity directly determines the procurement radius and bargaining space.
The core assets of this project are already in place: a fully automatic grain drying production line with a daily processing capacity of 200 tons, supporting weighbridge metering equipment, and the drying main unit, control system and conveying equipment are all in good working condition. The project operator has already operated the facility fully for nearly one year, and it is temporarily suspended now due to insufficient working capital, with no equipment failures or technical issues. In other words, this is a ready-made production capacity that only needs to be "refueled" to resume operation, rather than a new project that needs to be built from scratch.
The real constraint comes from the factory space. The existing site faces pressure from grain turnover and temporary storage during the peak autumn harvest season, so the drying capacity cannot be fully unleashed. The primary use of the RMB 6 million fund is to harden and expand the turnover site, add rainproof, windproof and fire protection supporting facilities, so that the 200-ton/day equipment capacity can match the sufficient grain supply throughput rhythm.
Revenue structure: Guaranteed processing fee as the base, trade price spread as the thickener, port channel as the long-term growth driver
From the perspective of business model, the project has designed three layers of revenue sources, with gradually increasing risk preference.
The first layer is the commissioned drying service. It targets large-scale planters and smallholder farmers in surrounding areas, charging stable processing service fees. This part of the business does not bear the risk of grain price fluctuations, and in essence uses the existing equipment capacity to exchange for cash flow, forming the "safety cushion" for project operation. Reference industry data shows that the drying service fee is usually in the range of RMB 60 to 80 per ton, and the core variables of the commissioned processing business are capacity utilization rate and turnover efficiency.
The second layer is independent procurement and sales. It purchases wet corn in batches during the autumn harvest season, and sells the dried corn to local feed enterprises and grain traders, earning the price spread brought by moisture reduction and quality improvement. Wushi and the surrounding areas of Aksu have concentrated feed production capacity, the spot realization path of dried corn is relatively short, and the payment collection cycle is controllable. The profit elasticity of this part depends on the sufficiency of working capital in the procurement season — which is exactly why "procurement working capital" accounts for the largest proportion of the RMB 6 million fund.
The third layer is port reserve and foreign trade option. Wushi County, where the project is located, has the only open port to the outside world in Aksu Prefecture — Biedieli Port, which realized temporary customs clearance in September 2024, and is expected to realize year-round opening after the supporting infrastructure construction is completed in 2027. This port is 296 kilometers away from Balykchy, the material distribution center in Kyrgyzstan, which is about 560 kilometers shorter than the transportation distance of Turgat Port, and the transportation cost can be reduced by 40% to 60%. For the grain drying project, this means that in addition to local domestic sales in the future, there is an additional potential channel to export dried grain to the Central Asian market. At present, this channel is still in the cultivation period, and does not contribute core revenue in the short term, but it constitutes an observable incremental variable within the 5-year cooperation period.
The RMB 6 million is paid for turnover capacity, not heavy assets
The priority of fund use itself conveys the risk characteristics of the project. The RMB 6 million is not used to purchase drying main units, but is concentrated on three things: expanding and hardening the factory turnover site to solve the rhythm mismatch between grain storage and drying in peak seasons; adding storage protection and fire protection supporting facilities to reduce the loss of temporary storage; and the most critical part — the working capital for batch corn procurement during the autumn harvest season. The project operator clarifies that full production can be resumed as soon as the funds are in place, with no construction period or equipment commissioning period required.
The project initiator has been engaged in the grassroots wholesale of feed and corn in Aheqi County since 2015, registered and established Aheqi Zhixin Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Development Co., Ltd. in 2020, and launched this drying project in Wushi County in 2024, with practical operation experience in local grain source organization, quality judgment and terminal sales. The team's competence is concentrated in the turnover link of "procurement - drying - sales", rather than heavy asset expansion.
For partners seeking to balance fixed income and industrial exposure, the structure of this project is relatively clear: the ready-made 200-ton/day production capacity provides the base revenue from processing fees, the nearly 300,000 mu of corn planting area in Wushi supports the turnover volume of grain sources, and the opening rhythm of Biedieli Port reserves an upward observation window for the 5-year cooperation period. The current core contradiction is that the turnover capacity cannot keep up with the equipment capacity, and the RMB 6 million fund serves to align the two.