Small snail noodles made into a "three tens of billions" big industry (people's eyes · development of characteristic industries)
Introduction
In 2014, Liuzhou City, Guangxi Province issued the first production license for bagged snail flour.
In just 6 years, millet flour has become a big industry: in 2020, Liuzhou will achieve 11 billion yuan in sales of bagged snail flour, 13 billion yuan in sales revenue from supporting and derivative industries, and 11.8 billion yuan in physical store sales revenue. The integrated development of the tertiary industry has created more than 300,000 jobs.
Snail noodles are Liuzhou's specialty snacks. It is named after its soup is boiled with snails.
A bowl of snail noodles has been turned into a "three tens of billions" industry, and the supply-side structural reform is indispensable.
From freshly cooked dinning to bagged fast food, from empirical production to standardized production, from roadside stalls to industrial parks, Liuzhou people with "industrial thinking" aim at market demand, insist on innovation and supply, and accelerate the promotion of snails. The industrialization, large-scale, and brand-based development of flour has allowed the snail flour, which was not easy to be stored and transported, to spread across the country and exported overseas, and it has become a "net celebrity gourmet".
In April this year, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited the Liuzhou snail powder production cluster area during an inspection in Guangxi to learn more about the snail powder characteristic industry to promote employment and increase farmers’ income.
"It's amazing! It is not easy for Xiaomi fans to create such a large-scale industry, and it is worth studying and summarizing." The general secretary praised.
General Secretary Xi Jinping urged everyone: "The development of the industry must have its own characteristics. The snail noodles are the characteristics, and they have captured everyone’s stomachs and become an industry on the tip of the tongue. We must continue to take the road of branding, and at the same time adhere to high quality and high standards. I believe that the snail noodle industry will have greater development prospects in the future."
A few days ago, the reporter came to Liuzhou to explore the supply-side reform story contained in a bowl of snail noodles.
Eat characteristics
"The key to the popularity of Liuzhou snail noodles lies in their highly recognizable and unique flavor, which has captured the stomachs of many people."
Slice the ginger, peel the garlic...When the oil is hot in the pot, stir fry more than 20 kinds of spices and snails with trimmed tails, then pour it into the pork bone broth and boil it for a few hours, and finally add the red chili oil , It became a fragrant snail soup.
As soon as a customer orders a meal, you can add freshly boiled rice noodles and green vegetables to the bottom of the bowl, top with sour bamboo shoots, capers, fungus, peanuts, yuba, day lily, etc., and pour a spoonful of snail soup. A bowl of authentic Liuzhou snail noodles was put on the table.
On a Sunday in May, Jiang Shan, a Shandong native who was on a business trip to Liuzhou, walked into the Xihuan Fatty Snail Noodle Shop at the mouth of Xihuan Road in Liuzhou City under the leadership of a local friend.
This is an old shop that has been open for more than 30 years. At 11:30 noon, the first floor of the shop that can seat 70 or 80 people is almost full, and there are still 7 or 8 customers standing in line in front of the ordering table.
"Our store is open from 8 am to 3 am, and sells more than 3,000 bowls of noodles every day on average." Chen Muhua, the hostess of the store, introduced.
Many Liuzhou citizens discovered that during the May 1st holiday this year, there were long queues in front of many humble snail noodle shops.
Statistics show that from May 1st to 5th, Liuzhou received 2,713,300 tourists, ranking first among all cities in Guangxi.
"A bowl of snail noodles will bring fire to Liuzhou City." Liuzhou City's Culture, Radio, Film, Television and Tourism Bureau wrote when analyzing the city's "May 1st" holiday cultural tourism market.
"In the past two years, more and more foreign customers have come to the store to eat noodles, and some people are using mobile phones to do live broadcasts." Chen Muhua said that since 2019, Xihuan Fat Boys have been opened in Liuzhou, Nanning, Lanzhou, Gansu and other places one after another. 30 brand chain stores.
With a bottle of soy milk, Jiang Shan, who didn't eat spicy food, cleaned up a bowl of snail noodles.
"It's delicious." He wiped his mouth with a tissue.
On the same day, Fu Xinyu, a second-year student in Liuzhou City who claimed to be "uncomfortable without eating snail noodles for a few days," enthusiastically rushed to the snail noodles self-service experience restaurant in Luo Bawang Luowei Industrial Park.
"The cooking of rice noodles and the addition of various ingredients here are all self-service, refreshing my experience of eating noodles." Fu Xinyu said.
In addition to eating noodles, Fu Xinyu also saw the whole process of the production of bagged snail noodles. “There are transparent glass on both sides of the visitor’s aisle, and the machine runs inside. It’s a novelty that packets of noodle noodles are continuously produced.”
Luobawang Luowei Industrial Park is invested and constructed by Guangxi Luobawang Food Technology Co., Ltd. It is not only a production plant, but also a tourist attraction.
"The investment is 450 million yuan, the plant area is 48,000 square meters, and the daily production capacity of snail powder is 1.5 million packs." The chairman of the company Yao Hanlin said that since the industrial park was completed and put into production at the end of March this year, it has received an average of more than 300 primary and middle school students every day.
"In 2015, I invested 680,000 yuan to set up my first snail flour production plant. The factory was rented, covering an area of 400 square meters, and producing 2,000 packs a day." Yao Hanlin said frankly, "I didn't expect to be able to develop to what it is today. Scale-the company's sales reached more than 900 million yuan last year."
In Liuzhou, both physical snail noodles stores and bag production companies have seen vigorous development in recent years.
"Especially during the prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic last year, the'home economy' rose, and our production was chased by orders." Yao Hanlin said.
According to statistics, in 2020, Liuzhou bagged snail powder sales revenue was 10.994 billion yuan, an increase of 75.74% year-on-year, and the total annual export value was 30.38 million yuan, which was 35 times the total export value in 2019.
The number of manufacturers of bagged Liuzhou snail noodles has grown from one in 2014 to 113 in 2020, with more than 20,000 online stores; physical stores of snail noodles have increased from nearly 5,000 nationwide 10 years ago to more than 18,000 now.
"Liuzhou snail noodles are not only popular, but they also become hot online topics from time to time." said Li Bin, director of the External Propaganda Office of the Liuzhou Municipal Party Committee. "During the epidemic prevention and control in mid-February last year, impatient netizens initiated the topic of'snail noodles not being shipped yet'. Top hot searches on Sina Weibo."
According to Chen Wei, the former executive vice president of Liuzhou Snails and Noodles Association, the promotion of the Internet and the rise of the "home economy" are just "icing on the cake" for the development of Liuzhou Snails and Noodles.
"Liuzhou snail noodles are rich in ingredients and have the characteristics of'sour, spicy, fresh, refreshing and hot'. Its production skills were included in the list of representative items of national intangible cultural heritage in May this year." Chen Wei said, "Liuzhou The key to the popularity of snail noodles lies in their highly recognizable unique flavor, which has captured the stomachs of many people."
Set standards
"The concept of standardization has run through the entire industrial chain of snail flour production and production"
What was the status of Liuzhou snail noodles 10 years ago?
"Although there are many stores, they can't form a scale; although there are many eateries, they can't leave Liuzhou." Chen Wei summed it up.
In order to promote snail noodles to go global, in 2011, the Liuzhou Municipal Government implemented the "snail noodles into Beijing" project.
With the support of the government, in March of that year, Chen Wei opened a store called "Master Luo Liuzhou Luo Xiaofen" in Chaoyangmenwai Street, Beijing, with a store area of more than 200 square meters.
"After the opening, business was good, and many customers patronized them. Later, they lost money due to the high rent of the store and insufficient revenue generation." Chen Wei said, "At that time, there were no bags of snail noodles, so I could only cook them for dine-in, bowls and bowls. Selling." In 2016, "Master Liuzhou Snail Noodles" Beijing store closed.
In May 2012, Liuzhou snail noodles appeared in the CCTV food documentary "China on the Bite of the Tongue".
Since the same year, Liuzhou has held a snail noodles food festival every year, and the first food festival also launched a "snail noodles with the same product for 10,000 people"... "During this period, social media such as Weibo and WeChat rose, and the Internet enlarged Liuzhou snail noodles. For popularity, e-commerce has expanded distribution channels." Chen Wei said.
At that time, Yan Zhenhua, who was in his early 20s, partnered with someone to run a local specialty supermarket in Guangxi near Liuzhou Railway Station, and his business was tepid.
“Visitors usually want to eat a bowl of snail noodles when they come to Liuzhou. They often regret it’s hard to pack them and take them home.” Yan Zhenhua said. He found a bowl of Guilin rice noodles while waiting for the flight at Guilin Airport in 2011. “I bought two bowls and tasted them. I found that the taste is very close to that of dine-in. Inspired by this, I tried to make bagged snail noodles."
But problems also followed.
The first is the issue of rice noodles.
"We found a manufacturer that produces bowls of Guilin rice noodles, and found that the production process of the'brewing type' did not meet the taste requirements of snail noodles. The rice noodles in Liuzhou were all semi-dry types that were supplied to physical stores at the time. It was difficult to pack and deteriorated easily.” Yan Zhenhua recalled that in order to buy dried rice noodles that matched the taste of snail noodles, he ran to a number of rice noodle factories, but because of the small demand, the manufacturers were reluctant to take orders.
"Later, through a friend's introduction, a rice noodle factory agreed to help us, tried two batches, and finally met the requirements."
The food problem was solved. In 2013, Yan Zhenhua was preparing to set up a factory, but he encountered obstacles when applying for a food production license.
"To apply for a license, it is necessary to determine the food category and have corresponding product standards." At the time, Lu Zhongjie, the head of the Food Production Supervision Section of Liuzhou Food and Drug Administration, said that according to the production process and product characteristics of Liuzhou snail powder, the food at that time Among the 28 major food categories of production licenses, none of them completely corresponds to it, and there is no corresponding product standard.
“On the one hand, online sales are getting larger and larger, and snail flour companies urgently need to apply for relevant market access qualifications; on the other hand, it is family workshop-style production, where environmental sanitation and product quality are difficult to guarantee.” Lu Zhongjie said that after risk assessment, they decided to follow the “first The principle of “standardization and further improvement” will solve the market access problem of bagged snail powder as soon as possible.
If there is no corresponding category, choose one of the 28 food categories with the most similar technology-convenience food; if there is no standard, guide the company to refer to the national standards of instant noodles and formulate the enterprise standard for the food safety of instant snail noodles. Send the samples to the quality inspection agency, repeatedly test and analyze the relevant data, and finally complete the formulation of the snail powder enterprise standard." Lu Zhongjie said.
After this enterprise standard was put on record by the former Health and Family Planning Commission of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Lv Zhongjie and his colleagues guided Yan Zhenhua's enterprise to implement plant zoning reforms and improve quality management systems.
Finally, after on-site inspection by the expert group, in October 2014, the former Food and Drug Administration of Liuzhou City issued the city's first production license for bagged snail powder.
In June 2015, Liuzhou established a leading group for the preparation of local food safety standards for Liuzhou snail powder, and organized the drafting of the "Local Food Safety Standard Liuzhou Snail Powder", which stipulates the materials, packaging, product physical and chemical indicators, and microbiological indicators of bagged snail powder.
In May of the following year, this standard was formally implemented.
"Every index is tested repeatedly and samples are sent for testing." Gong Xinling, deputy director of the Liuzhou City Quality Inspection and Research Center, introduced the water content of rice noodles as an example. If the water content of rice noodles is too high, it is easy to breed mold, and if the water content is too low, it is easy to break.
"The actual production capacity of the company must also be considered when setting the standard. We have also listened to the opinions of some companies and finally set the water content index to 14%."
"After the local food safety standards for Liuzhou snail noodles were promulgated, the production enterprises had unified food safety standards, which solved the problem of uneven product quality." Lu Zhongjie said.
In February 2018, Liuzhou Snail Noodle Inspection and Testing Center (now Liuzhou Snail Noodle Quality Inspection Center) was listed.
"At present, 9 categories of products including main products, raw and auxiliary materials, food packaging materials, and food additives can be tested, which basically cover the inspection needs of the entire industry chain." Gong Xinling said.
"In order to meet the various indicators stipulated by local standards, we have introduced a high-temperature sterilization production line and added semi-automatic packaging equipment. The rice noodles have also changed from outdoor drying in the past to drying in an indoor constant temperature roasting room." Yan Zhenhua said, the company has improved the production process as a whole. The various microbiological indicators of the product continue to be stable within the safe range, and the product shelf life has also been extended from 3 months to 6 months.
Xie Shaozong, deputy head of the Standardization Section of Liuzhou Municipal Market Supervision Administration, introduced that in recent years, standards such as "Liuzhou snail powder soup (preparation) package production specifications", Liuzhou snail powder production disinfection and sterilization specifications, and snail rice field ecological breeding technical specifications have been issued one after another. , "The concept of standardization has run through the entire industrial chain of snail powder production."
Educational Brand
"Enterprises continue to explore and innovate to build brands, and government departments are also assisting in branding"
As the founder of Liuzhou's first company to produce bagged snail noodles, Yan Zhenhua has experienced the high-gloss moment of daily sales of 10,000 bags, as well as the operating downturn.
Looking back on the past, he said that "failure to improve the product in time" was the main reason for being caught up.
In March 2020, Yan Zhenhua newly registered the company and started production in May of that year.
"Over the past year, we have vigorously engaged in technological transformation, research and development of new products, and cultivate brands. After the Spring Festival this year, the daily output has increased from 5,000 to more than 20,000."
"Brand is the core competitiveness of an enterprise. To realize the transformation from product to brand, we must continue to innovate and improve quality." Speaking of "latecomers catching up", Yao Hanlin said with emotion.
"Before the new product goes on the market, I may have to try more than 10 bowls of snail noodles a day." Long Renjin, director of the R&D department of Guangxi Luobawang Food Technology Co., Ltd., is responsible for new product development.
In the Luo Bawang company's product exhibition hall, there are a wide variety of bagged snail noodles: original, spicy, tomato, etc., and the types include barrel, box, and bag cooking.
"Now there are many companies in Liuzhou snail powder. To be'outstanding' among the'all flowers blooming', they must have their own selling points." Yao Hanlin said that when he started his company in 2015, he was determined to take the path of differentiated development.
"For example, at the beginning we added two quail eggs to each bag of products, but other manufacturers didn't have them at that time."
"Building a brand, product quality is fundamental." Yao Hanlin said that for a period of time, due to the tight supply of raw materials for epidemic prevention and control, "we insisted on not relaxing the quality standards of raw materials, and would rather reduce production to ensure product quality."
Nowadays in Liuzhou, many snail noodle companies are making continuous efforts to take the road of branding.
Guangxi Zhongliu Food Technology Co., Ltd. cooperated with Liuzhou Vocational and Technical College to launch brewed snail noodles with a more mellow taste.
“In addition to the stricter control of sour bamboo shoots and the requirement that Laotan be soaked for more than half a year, technical innovations have also been made in the production of rice noodles.” said Xiong Chaoxuan, chairman of Zhongliu Food Technology Co., Ltd.. The bagged snail noodles currently on the market are boiled. Mainly, the brewed rice noodles save time and effort compared with the boiled rice noodles, but the taste is not as chewy as the boiled rice noodles. "Through product optimization, the brewed rice noodles are now also chewy."
Guangxi Fensheng Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. operates the "Only Voucher Bowl" snail noodle brand, which targets women between 16 and 25 years old. From packaging to taste, it fits the consumer psychology of this group.
"After big data analysis, this group is the main group for online shopping of snail noodles." Fangnong, the founder of Fensheng Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd., is 26 years old this year, and his team has an average age of 23.
"We have developed 14 flavors of products, and our sales revenue reached more than 300 million yuan last year."
"Brands can only sell well. Enterprises continue to explore and innovate to build brands, and government departments also help them to build brands." said Jia Jiangong, deputy director of Liuzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce.
Strengthen online and offline marketing.
"In addition to organizing companies to participate in various large-scale exhibitions in various places, it is more important to seize the e-commerce express to enhance the brand influence of Liuzhou snail powder." Jia Jiangong said that in recent years, Liuzhou City has strengthened the construction of e-commerce platform and formed snail powder. Industry "online agglomeration zone".
Organize brand evaluations.
In 2017, Liuzhou City held the first snail noodle brand appraisal event, and the government awarded 6.5 million yuan to 6 award-winning companies.
In March of this year, Liuzhou City launched the second snail noodle brand appraisal activity.
Create a regional public brand of "Liuzhou snail noodles".
In July 2018, "Liuzhou snail powder" was approved and registered as a geographical indication certification trademark by the State Intellectual Property Office. So far, 47 companies have been authorized to use it.
"Obtaining a geographical indication certification mark means that the principle of'Liuzhou snail flour made in Liuzhou' has been established, which protects the common interests of Liuzhou snail flour manufacturers, and it also imposes stricter quality requirements on companies that use geographical indication certification marks." Jiangong said.
Cohesion
"Insist on supplementing the chain and extending the chain, gathering development, and promoting the optimization and upgrading of the whole industrial chain of snail noodles"
"In the past few years, we have insisted on supplementing the chain and extending the chain, gathering development, and promoting the optimization and upgrading of the entire industrial chain of snail powder." Wu Wei, secretary of the Liuzhou Municipal Party Committee, said that the city has made great efforts to promote "the preparation of a plan, a strict standard, and the construction of a number of industrial clusters. , Cultivating a group of leading enterprises and well-known brands" and other "six one" projects.
So far, Liuzhou has built industrial clusters such as the snail powder industrial park, the characteristic town of snail powder, and the snail powder e-commerce industrial park, attracting more than 100 companies including raw material supply, product processing, e-commerce, and logistics to settle in the park.
The scale of Liuzhou snail powder raw material base has reached more than 500,000 mu, which has driven about 200,000 farmers to increase their income.
At 6 o'clock in the morning, the sky was bright and mist shrouded in the mountains.
Tan Baolin stood by the ground and greeted the villagers who came to work.
On this day, he will provide 50,000 catties of cowpeas and 30,000 catties of hot peppers to a bagged snail powder manufacturer in Liuzhou.
Picking, packing, and loading, the villagers went home to rest at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, and Tan Baolin was finally able to breathe.
Tired or tired, Tan Baolin feels comfortable: "This year's orders have been scheduled to the end of July, and the amount has reached 200 million yuan."
Qin Baolin, 40, is the head of Guangxi Baolin Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd., with a planting base of more than 3,000 acres, including 1,000 acres in Wangmei Village, Baisha Town, Yufeng District, Liuzhou City.
In April 2019, the "Construction Plan for the Core Demonstration Zone of Liuzhou Snail Noodle Industry" in Yufeng District passed expert review and Wangmei Village was identified as a demonstration base for the standardized production of raw materials for Liuzhou Snail Noodles. So far, standardized species such as bamboo shoots, rice, beans, and snail noodles have been built. The breeding area is 5500 acres.
"Our base mainly grows beans and peppers, and the demonstration planting techniques include weight loss, drug reduction, quality improvement and efficiency cultivation techniques." Tan Baolin said.
In the yard of the Baisha acid factory not far from Wangmei Village, a truck full of fresh beans is waiting to be unloaded.
"We produce 20 million catties of snail powder ingredients such as sour bamboo shoots and capers per year." said Huang Yanzhi, person in charge of the white sand acid factory.
Baisha Acid Factory is the acid feed processing area in the core demonstration area of Liuzhou snail powder industry.
Liuzhou Snail Noodle Industrial Park is also located in this demonstration zone. So far, 38 enterprises have settled in and put into production, with an average daily output of more than 3 million bags.
"In the past few years, Liuzhou has promoted the deep integration of'snail noodles + tourism'. Liuzhou Snail noodles industrial park tourist attractions and the snail noodles characteristic town were rated as national 4A scenic spots, further extending the industrial chain." Li Bin said.
On December 18, 2020, Liuzhou City held a press conference on the production and sales of bagged Liuzhou snail flour exceeding 10 billion yuan. Vice Mayor Meng Qipeng announced at the meeting that Liuzhou City had achieved sales revenue of 10 billion yuan for bagged snail flour two years in advance. , The target of 10 billion yuan in sales revenue from supporting and derivative industries.
In the next five years, the Liuzhou snail flour industry will move towards the goal of 50 billion yuan. "The sales of bagged Liuzhou snail flour will exceed 20 billion yuan, and the sales of supporting and derivative industries will exceed 30 billion yuan."
How to take the road to the future and promote high-quality development?
Wu Wei said that he will continue to focus on regulatory standards and service support on the other.
On the Liuzhou City Government website, input "snail noodles" to search for more than 1,600 pieces of information.
There are "strict management" news such as the launch of industry-specific rectification, the holding of corporate meetings, and the notification of the results of random inspections, as well as the "love" news from the city and county governments and relevant departments to help companies relieve difficulties and help enterprises.
"Last year, our company deducted 3.9264 million yuan of input tax on agricultural products value-added tax according to the new method, which is 740,000 yuan more than the old method." Yao Hanlin said.
The "new method" mentioned by Yao Hanlin refers to the verification and deduction method for the input tax of agricultural product value-added tax in the snail flour manufacturing industry in Liuzhou City starting from August 2019.
"In layman's terms, snail flour enterprises have to deduct the input tax of value-added tax on agricultural products, and no longer need to provide VAT deduction certificates for purchased agricultural products. Instead, the tax department will calculate the enterprise’s agricultural products in the current year based on the enterprise’s previous year’s accounting data. The consumption rate is used for deduction.” According to Wu Chenggang, chief accountant of Liuzhou Taxation Bureau of the State Administration of Taxation, this action solves the problem of increased tax burden caused by insufficient value-added tax deduction certificates obtained by snail flour manufacturers for purchasing agricultural products.
There are a lot of such "help" news: the municipal finance has invested 450 million yuan in various types of funds to support the expansion and strengthening of the snail powder industry chain; Liuzhou Vocational and Technical College established the snail powder industry college to cultivate talents for industrial development ...
"All parties work together to promote the optimization and upgrading of the entire industry chain, and Liuzhou snail noodles will usher in greater development." Optimistic about the industry prospects, Chen Wei recently collaborated with others to develop a red sorghum rice noodle, ready to return to the snail noodle market.
Layout design: Wang Zheping
Our reporter Yang Yan and Deng Jiansheng wish all the best