"Through the e-commerce platform, we have opened up online sales, and our brand awareness has also been improved. After some foreign consumers tasted our smelly mandarin fish , they even took the initiative to find us and asked us to be their supplier!" Whenever he talks about smelly mandarin fish, Zeng Yu, a young man born in the 1990s from Xiuning County, Huangshan, Anhui Province, talks endlessly.
Zeng Yu is the general manager of Huangshan Huikang Food Co., Ltd. Two years ago, under the epidemic, Zeng Yu, who was seeking innovation and change, began to explore online sales channels. Unexpectedly, he suddenly became the leading merchant of freshwater fish on the new e-commerce platform Pinduoduo.
Huizhou's unique geographical and humanistic environment has created a unique food culture, Hui cuisine, one of the eight major cuisines in China. As a traditional Hui cuisine dish with a history of hundreds of years, stinky mandarin fish is a landmark delicacy in Huizhou and a traditional intangible cultural heritage . In the past, stinky mandarin fish has always relied on offline sales. In recent years, riding on the "east wind" of e-commerce, stinky mandarin fish has continuously improved its production technology. While retaining the taste of traditional ancient methods, it caters to consumer tastes and develops multi-category fusion pre-made dishes. , has entered thousands of households across the country, and sales are constantly being refreshed.
As a traditional Hui cuisine, stinky mandarin fish is a landmark delicacy in Huizhou and a traditional intangible cultural heritage. Photographed by Liu Yucai
90’s post-90s gymnastics champion’s dream of stinky mandarin fish
Zeng Yu was born in 1993 in Tongling, Anhui Province and practiced gymnastics since he was a child. He is 10 He joined the Bayi Gymnastics Team at the age of 18 and won the championship in the ring event at the National Youth Gymnastics Championships.
In 2017, the documentary " A Bite of China " became popular all over the country. One of the programs was dedicated to introducing smelly mandarin fish. After the show was broadcast, Mandarin fish and Anhui cuisine suddenly came to the forefront of IP.
Zeng Yu, who had retired at this time, keenly grasped the business opportunities. He immediately came to Xiuning County and met with the master of Chinese Hui cuisine stinky mandarin fish cooking and the municipal representative of the intangible cultural heritage project Huizhou stinky mandarin fish production technology. Sex inheritor Han Kejun jointly invested in a stinky mandarin fish production factory in Xiuning County, specializing in the production and sales of the famous Anhui cuisine stinky mandarin fish.
Han Kejun pickles stinky mandarin fish in the company's production workshop. Photo by Liu Yucai
After the company was founded, it slowly got on the right track, with sales continuing to rise. However, in 2020, the sudden COVID-19 epidemic hit companies hard.
"At that time, our products were mainly supplied to hotels and restaurants across the country. During the epidemic, restaurants were not open, which had a great impact on us. As of April that year, our offline sales were almost zero." Zeng Yu recalled that at that time , sales are cut off, but workers’ wages, cold storage and other expenses cost at least hundreds of thousands of yuan every month. How to open up new sales channels is the biggest problem before him.
Zeng Yu set his sights online. After consulting some local e-commerce practitioners, in the first half of 2020, Zeng Yu opened his first online store on Pinduoduo , the country's largest agricultural products upstream platform, to try online " Breakout".
didn’t know much about e-commerce expertise, so Zeng Yu watched and learned from the invited experts every day. Hard work paid off. After more than half a year, Zeng Yu built his store to the top of Pinduoduo Freshwater Fish Group. He also went from a gymnastics champion to a well-known local e-commerce expert.
"Now, our annual sales on the Pinduoduo platform have reached more than 10 million yuan, accounting for half of the company's total sales." Zeng Yu said that next, he will also expand the production line and develop new stinky mandarin fish. products, striving to carry forward the intangible cultural heritage of stinky mandarin fish.
Famous Hui cuisine chefs spent three years improving the processing technology of stinky mandarin fish
The history of stinky mandarin fish can be traced back to the late Qing Dynasty. At that time, every winter, fishmongers would transport the Yangtze River mandarin fish in wooden barrels to the mountainous areas of Huizhou for sale. To prevent spoilage, sprinkle a layer of fish with a layer of salt and turn it up and down frequently. After being transported to Huizhou, the quality of the fish has not changed, but the skin exudes a special smell that seems to be smelly but not smelly. After being washed and fried in hot oil, not only the smell disappears, but it becomes more fragrant, making it a favorite flavor of the local people. gourmet food.
Wu Yongxue, who is also from Xiuning County, has worked hard in the catering industry in Beijing for many years and was once a famous Anhui cuisine chef.In his view, although smelly mandarin fish is famous, many people shake their heads in disapproval when it comes to its flavor.
"Stinky mandarin fish processed in traditional ways has a salty taste, hard meat, and unstable smell, and many people are not used to it. Therefore, even though stinky mandarin fish is very famous, it is difficult to popularize." In 2012, Wu Yongxue returned to China Township, two fellow villagers jointly founded Huisan Agricultural Products Processing Co., Ltd., focusing on the traditional Anhui vegetable brand stinky mandarin fish. After starting his business, Wu Yongxue has been trying hard to improve the traditional stinky mandarin fish production process. He and the company's technical staff spent 3 years studying and innovating the processing and production methods of stinky mandarin fish, from the selection of raw materials to the ingredients of stinky mandarin fish. proportion, and then to the pickling, storage and other aspects. After many experiments in three years, a complete set of mechanized equipment was put online. At the same time, 31 processes were strictly controlled and the assembly line produced stinky mandarin fish, which finally solved the above problems. It is processed to produce "Hui San Smelly Mandarin Fish" with elastic meat, smooth texture and stable quality.
's "Hui San Stinky Mandarin Fish" was produced by improving the traditional stinky mandarin fish production technology. Once launched, it became a best-seller across the country. In 2017, the sales of "Hui San Stinky Mandarin Fish" exceeded the 100 million yuan mark.
In order to ensure the quality of "Anhui Three Stinky Mandarin Fish", Wu Yongxue's company has launched a complete set of mechanized equipment. The picture shows workers working on the assembly line. Photographed by Liu Yucai
In 2020, Wu Yongxue took a look at the new situation of online consumption, decisively recruited talents, and established A professional e-commerce team began to try e-commerce sales.
After research, Wu Yongxue found that the Pinduoduo platform was more suitable for their products, and he quickly opened a store. Unexpectedly, just 14 days after it went online, it topped the list of freshwater fish sales and positive reviews, with sales exceeding one million yuan in the month the store opened.
has developed from a fish into an industry
In 2021, when the raw materials of smelly mandarin fish were out of stock, Wu Yongxue's Pinduoduo platform achieved annual sales of 15 million yuan. This year, it is expected to exceed 20 million yuan. Although the momentum of online sales is good, Wu Yongxue knows that he cannot just focus on one fish.
repeatedly analyzed and pondered the feedback from consumers on the platform. After some thinking, Wu Yongxue realized that in order to maximize the business of stinky mandarin fish, he must launch more types of derivative products around stinky mandarin fish.
Starting last year, Wu Yongxue found some experts and scholars from scientific research institutes to start developing new products based on new online consumption habits. Up to now, a variety of souvenirs, casual delicacies, and prepared dishes have been developed that combine stinky mandarin fish, such as Buddha Jumps Over the Wall stinky mandarin fish, abalone stinky mandarin fish , etc., and there are even ones made with fish paste. Ready-to-eat snacks.
"These products will soon be launched on e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo. I believe they will become popular." Wu Yongxue is full of confidence in the future online sales prospects.
In Wu Yongxue’s company, staff from the e-commerce department live-streamed the goods on the e-commerce platform. Photographed by Liu Yucai
At the same time, under the leadership of Wu Yongxue, the local standard of Anhui Province "Technical Regulations for Processing of Stinky Mandarin Fish" was successfully introduced. From the perspective of the industry This aspect ensures the processing quality of smelly mandarin fish.
"Stinky Mandarin Fish originates from Huizhou, a city with profound cultural heritage, and has its own IP aura. I believe that with the support of the Internet e-commerce platform, it will continue to grow bigger and stronger!" Wu Yongxue said that in the future, he is confident that "Huizhou" will The "Three Stinky Mandarin Fish" brand was launched and developed into a large-scale industry. It made every effort to promote the listing of the stinky mandarin fish industry, which in turn led to the revitalization of Anhui cuisine.
It is understood that in order to increase the added value and premium capabilities of agricultural products, promote the healthy development of the industry, promote stable income growth for farmers, and assist rural revitalization, Pinduoduo, as China's largest agricultural product upstream platform, launched the "Xinxian China-Duoduo Good Agricultural Products" project , taking the seasons as the axis, looking for the freshest seasonal ingredients across the country, introducing "good agricultural products" from various places to platform users through "early live broadcasts", special area promotions, landmark promotions, etc., and summarizing and sorting out experience in brand building and protection of agricultural products. , and choose the opportunity to promote it to more agricultural production areas.During the event, Pinduoduo will adhere to the "zero commission" and "gathering + direct delivery" models of agricultural products, formulate and improve "good agricultural products" standards for different agricultural product categories, and provide resources to agricultural products that meet the standards.
"The county's online sales of agricultural products are about 200 million, of which stinky mandarin fish sales account for more than 20%." According to Liao Lixia, deputy director of the Xiuning County Commerce Bureau, in recent years, driven by e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo, The local smelly mandarin fish industry has formed a certain scale, and its future development is expected.
