1. Zhangzhou, the hometown of fish and rice, has a food output value of 170 billion
Recently, Zhangzhou became popular on social media because of an Dongshan Island , and became a recommended place for check-in at niche islands on Xiaohongshu. In the past, citizens of Zhangzhou would travel thousands of miles to Sanya, Hainan for vacation every holiday. Now they found that the beautiful scenery was right in front of them. Watch the sea in Nanmen Bay, wait for the sunset at Wengong Temple, ride an electric bike in the alley to blow the sea breeze, stop in front of the fishing village and wait for a bowl of seafood porridge .
However, before becoming a tourist city, there is more to say in Zhangzhou.
As a city in southern Fujian with a population of 5 million, Zhangzhou is adjacent to Xiamen in the northeast and Guangdong in the southwest. It is a historical and cultural city. Wooden New Year pictures, puppet shows, Jinge , drum making skills, etc. are included in the national intangible cultural heritage; it is called the "Hometown of Fish and Rice", " Canned Capital of China ", and "Mushroom Capital of China". Fruits, vegetables, edible fungi, tea, flowers, etc. constitute the nine characteristic industries of its agriculture; it was listed as a national coastal economic open zone in 1985, and achieved opening up to the outside world and overseas trade early.
is measured by regional output value. Although the production growth rate in Zhangzhou was negative in 2020 due to the epidemic, it rebounded rapidly in 2021. According to the Statistical Bulletin of National Economic and Social Development in Zhangzhou City in 2021, in the past 2021, Zhangzhou achieved a regional GDP of 502.54 billion yuan, and increased by 7.7%. Among them, the primary, secondary and tertiary industries contributed 53.028 billion, 246.144 billion and 203.368 billion respectively.
Data source: Statistical Bulletin
Among all industries developed in Zhangzhou, food, as its traditional advantageous industry, is also the largest industry in Zhangzhou, and has contributed considerable strength to Zhangzhou's production. The Zhangzhou Food Safety White Paper shows that in different industries, there were 2,227 food production enterprises and 602 above-scale enterprises in the city in 2021, with an output value of nearly 170 billion yuan.
2. Canned food starts the Zhangzhou industry and forms a specialty food cluster
The famous food in Zhangzhou begins with the canned business.
As the "Can Capital of China", public information shows that Zhangzhou's canned food industry began in the mid-20th century and went through three stages from its establishment to its rapid development. The state-owned Zhangzhou canning factory was established in 1957. In the 1970s, the canned mushrooms began to be exported to Europe and the United States. In the 1980s, the private canning factory experienced rapid rise and expansion. In the early 21st century, Zhangzhou's Zishan Group and Tongfa Group were already among the top ten canned industries in China.
Figure 1: Zishan Group Canned Food Source: Company Website
Today, Zhangzhou has gathered canned food, quick-frozen (dehydrated) fruits and vegetables, freeze-dried , aquatic processing products, edible oils, edible fungi, fruit and vegetable beverages and other specialty food industries, forming a development pattern driven by leading enterprises and divided by regions.
In terms of regional characteristics, according to the key industries of Zhangzhou City released by the Fujian Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, the area around Dongshan Bay and the coastal areas such as Zhangpu and Longhai are mainly processed with aquatic products, and Longhai, Taitou District, Nanjing , Longwen and other places along the Jiulongjiang basin and Zhangpu are mainly processed with fruit and vegetable edible fungi; snack food manufacturing is concentrated in Longhai, Longwen, Xiangcheng , Nanjing and other places, while tea processing is mainly concentrated in Hua'an , Pinghe, Nanjing, Zhao'an and other places.
In the leading enterprises, we took the companies released by Zhangzhou City that won the second China Food City (Zhangzhou) food business card "Leadership Enterprise Winner" award as reference, and sorted out the following table.
In addition to leading enterprises, Zhangzhou has also nurtured many food companies represented by specialty foods, and their specialty foods and corresponding enterprises are as follows.
In the development path of leading enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises, we have discovered three development trends: first, e-commerce; second, seeking newness among similar products; third, transforming business in the face of saturated markets.
- ecommerce turns to
2014. When e-commerce was developing rapidly in China in 2015, Zhangzhou realized the role of this emerging business model in promoting industrial development. In 2015, it signed a cooperation agreement on the "Alibaba Zhangzhou Industrial Belt" with Alibaba to help traditional enterprises transform. From 2015 to 2020, there have been 1,187 companies entering the industry, of which more than one-third of the food and fresh food companies account for.
Among them, some companies that traditionally focus on offline wholesales have achieved secondary development through e-commerce.
Fujian Honglu Food Co., Ltd. was established in 2004. Its products include canned food, convenience food, vegetable products, etc. When the online shopping market was in full swing, Honglu quickly formed an e-commerce team to accelerate its online layout. Its online sales grew year by year, reaching 3 million yuan in 2019; Fujian Maidong Food Co., Ltd. was founded in 2006 and produces mochi , cakes, biscuits and other products. Its e-commerce channel sales can reach 10 million yuan. There are many such companies, which together constitute a major driving force for the development of Zhangzhou e-commerce.
- technology shifts to
Taking Haixin Food, which was founded in 1995 as an example, the company's early products were mainly hard and low-hydrated biscuits. Facing the intensification of homogeneity, Haixin had to seek new growth paths. Fujian Daily reported that Haixin went to Europe six times in 2006 to inspect local baking technologies and products. In 2007, he cooperated with Germany's DANCO to introduce China's first Austrian HAAS waffle production line, which opened the precedent for soft biscuits in China with its "Danf waffle" and it is reported that the single product was sold for 500 million yuan a year.
- business shifts to
In the development of Zhangzhou food enterprises, there is no shortage of enterprises that are good at innovation, and Mingde is one of them. Zhangzhou Mingde Food Co., Ltd. was established in 2009. It was formerly Fruit and Vegetable Quick Frozen Food Co., Ltd., and its main business was frozen fruit and vegetable processing before 2015. In 2015, with the maturity of cold chain technology, the fast-freezing industry entered a period of rapid development, and more and more competitors entered the market. With the market becoming saturated, Mingde started its second business: fried ready-to-eat products.
Nowadays, you can see how Mingde combined the advantages of Fujian Province's edible fungi industry in its workshops and factories, combining different mushrooms with fried foods, becoming various snack edible fungi crisps. The transformation brought not stagnation to Zhangzhou food, but new vitality.
Figure 2: Zhangzhou Mingde Food Company's factory fruit and vegetable crisps Source: Dewei Farm Taobao Store
Since the epidemic, Zhangzhou is losing its overseas advantages, with limited logistics and hindered foreign trade. However, this city seems to have endless growth power, enough to help it overcome difficulties. Zishan Group is one of the representatives of this spirit.
Fujian Zishan Group Co., Ltd. was founded in 1984 and focuses on food production and export. Its products include canned food, pickles, , self-heating convenience food, beverages, etc., and are exported to more than 60 countries and regions including Europe, America, Japan, Southeast Asia, etc.
For such a company that started with foreign trade, the epidemic has its own impact. Under this circumstance, Zishan actively explores the domestic market and uses its original industrial advantages to develop self-heating products. Its chairman Hongshuihe said in an interview with the Economic Reference News, "Combining the advantages of supply chain and the characteristics of Fujian cuisine , we have developed Internet celebrity products such as plum cuisine tucked pork , sauerkraut fish , mushroom chicken soup, etc. In the future, we will continue to deepen our pre-made dishes and adapt to the lifestyle of the 'post-epidemic era'."
3. The lack of leading enterprises, Zhangzhou government opens standards for formulating
In the process of development, Zhangzhou has achieved gratifying results, but it also faces problems such as insufficient development potential, weak innovation capabilities, and low technical barriers for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Fujian Daily reported that more than 90% of Zhangzhou food belong to small and medium-sized enterprises, and this distribution is vividly described as "more stars and fewer moons". It is reported that there are 602 food enterprises above the designated size in Zhangzhou, with most of them in industries of RMB 10 million, with fewer enterprises with annual output value of RMB 5 billion and RMB 10 billion. There is no industry.
For this reason, encouraging enterprises to scale up is the development path of Zhangzhou. Since we want to develop small and medium-sized enterprises, we must start with technological innovation and improve their product differences and competitiveness.
However, most small and medium-sized enterprises still have the attitude of "taking it out". When a single product of a certain company forms a hot product, other enterprises begin to follow suit, and few truly do technological innovation. On the one hand, enterprises do it to save R&D costs, and on the other hand, it is because small and medium-sized enterprises lack channels to contact relevant standards.
For this reason, Zhangzhou Municipal Government has taken the policy, Support has been provided in terms of funds and activities. In terms of policy, in recent years, policies to promote food development have been successively introduced. "Three-year Action Plan for "Great Industry and Focus on Large Industry" (2019-2021)", "Eight Measures to Support the Food Industry to Make the Big Thickness", "Several Measures to Promote the Accelerated Development of Private Enterprises", etc. Zhangzhou hopes to promote the "Zhangzhou Flavor" to the world.
In the "Eight Measures to Support the High-Quality Development of Food Processing Industry Clusters in Zhangzhou" issued in 2022, the measures are formulated from eight aspects: "encouraging enterprises to do large-scale, intelligent transformation, innovation platform construction, enterprise technical transformation improvement, market expansion, independent innovation, brand quality improvement, and exchanges and cooperation". focuses on bringing the food processing industry The cluster is built into a trillion-level industrial cluster.
has given clear financial support for the encouragement of annual output value and innovation. The "Measures" mentions that food companies with annual output value exceeding 10 billion yuan, 5 billion yuan, 3 billion yuan and 1 billion yuan for the first time will be rewarded by 5 million yuan, 1 million yuan, 500,000 yuan, and 300,000 yuan respectively; in terms of digitalization of food enterprises, one-time rewards of 1 million yuan and 250,000 yuan will be given to enterprises rated as provincial industrial Internet demonstration platforms and new models of new business models for the integration of new information technology and manufacturing industry. In terms of intelligent manufacturing, one-time rewards of 1 million yuan and 500,000 yuan will be given respectively, and so on.
In addition to setting standards downward with the government as the main body, "Measures" also encourages small and medium-sized enterprises to promote "bottom-up". "Measures" mentioned that enterprises are encouraged to make suggestions on the formulation of food standards in Zhangzhou City, and cash rewards are given to the entities participating in the formulation of national, industry, local and group standards, in order to jointly promote the development of food enterprises in a more complete direction.
In addition to policies and funds, holding activities to promote communication and exchanges among small and medium-sized enterprises is also an indispensable part of food development.
2019 Second China Food City (Zhangzhou) Food Fair was held at Longhai Food Expo Park. attracted 700 companies and signed contracts for investment of 27.8 billion yuan on site; 2021 Third China Food City Fair was held, attracted 600 food companies and signed contracts for investment of 24.2 billion yuan on site. In these expos, in addition to local enterprises in Zhangzhou, there are also many well-known foreign companies, such as COFCO , Golden Dragon Fish, etc.
Figure 3: Zhangzhou Fair Site Source: Xinhuanet
This mutual communication also includes more specific scientific training. Since 2019, Zhangzhou Food Technology Application Research Institute has held many trainings on "empty can manufacturing" and "thermal sterilization" for the "Stars" of Zhangzhou Food Science and Technology Scientific Application. The person in charge said that in addition to specific technologies, it is also hoped to enhance the intellectual property awareness of enterprises through such exchanges and learning.
4. Conclusion
We see that in the face of food companies' "more stars and few moons", the Zhangzhou Municipal Government has provided support from many aspects. To this day, Zhangzhou City has become a famous food city in China with 2,500 food companies, and its canned food and aquatic products are exported to more than 120 countries and regions.
In March 2022, the "Special Plan for High-Quality Development of Zhangzhou City's "14th Five-Year Plan" for Manufacturing Industry" was released. Zhangzhou is expected to achieve a food processing industry of 230 billion yuan in 2025. In the process of the change in the entire food industry, this city in southern Fujian has also slowly stepped towards change in its own pace, and the transformation of Zhangzhou food enterprises is already on the way.
Reference:
1. Economic Reference News. The food city of Zhangzhou breaks through the epidemic: "World Kitchen" embraces the national dining table
2. China Quality News. 2021 Fujian Zhangzhou Food Safety White Paper released
3. Fujian Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology. Zhangzhou has introduced measures to support the development of the food processing industry
4. Xinhuanet. "Buy the world, sell the world" Domestic and foreign food companies Zhangzhou "gathered fans"
5. Taiwan Strait Network. China's famous food city" Zhangzhou: Food "all the stars" explores healthy development
6. Southeast. Alibaba Zhangzhou Industrial Belt: Make wedding dresses for regional industrial clusters
7. Fujian Daily. Zhangzhou Food "touches the Internet" and goes up
8. China Light Industry Information Network. Zhangzhou Food's "Alchemy Road"
9. Economic Reference News. The food city of Zhangzhou breaks through the epidemic: "World Kitchen" embraces the national dining table
