Investigation on the prefabricated vegetable industry chain on the "wind outlet": prefabricated food is developing rapidly and industry access and standards are also on the agenda
Just a simple heating or processing, a fish-flavored shredded pork with full color and aroma can be served on the table, without chopping, washing, or worrying about poor cooking skills - today's popular pre-made dishes make many people at home Easily "be a chef".
Since last year, pre-made vegetables have received continuous attention from the market and have become a new investment outlet.
Nowadays, pre-made dishes have been vigorously supported by policies in many places.
On March 25, 2022, the official website of the General Office of the People's Government of Guangdong Province released the "Ten Measures for Accelerating the High-quality Development of Guangdong's Prefabricated Vegetable Industry" (hereinafter referred to as "Ten Measures for Prefabricated Vegetables"), proposing a series of measures to promote the high quality of Guangdong's prefabricated food industry. developing.
According to industry insiders, Guangzhou prefabricated food is moving towards high-quality development, and dozens of large-scale prefabricated food companies have emerged. , on the one hand, it is necessary to strengthen the supervision of food hygiene, and on the other hand, it is necessary to formulate industry standards and regulate access.
Text/Guangzhou Daily All Media Reporter Xiao Huanhuan
Photo/All media reporters of Guangzhou Daily, Luo Changwei and Xiao Huanhuan (except for signatures)
Food supplier:
Supply more than 50 kinds of pre-made food ingredients to catering enterprises every day
Chen Zonghui, Supervisor of Guangzhou Chain Store and Franchise Association, now runs dozens of farmers' markets and fresh food supermarkets. He has provided central kitchen-style food distribution services to more than 50 catering companies in Guangzhou. species.
Chen Zonghui said that the reason why pre-made dishes have become popular in the past two years is because of changes in consumption habits.
It is generally believed that Guangzhou people pay more attention to the original taste of the dishes, and pay attention to "chicken tastes like chicken and vegetables taste like vegetables", and many pre-made dishes are processed in advance and can be stored for more than half a month at most. The taste is worse than in restaurants, and there may not be so many people willing to consume pre-made dishes.
But in fact, due to the large foreign population in Guangzhou, the proportion of young people is also large, resulting in great changes in consumption habits and consumption trends.
Especially urban white-collar workers are busy with work and rarely have time to cook a big meal at home. Many people want to eat the same delicious food as a restaurant at home, but they are unable to cook, so the "lazy welfare" of pre-made dishes came into being. pregnancy.
Especially under the influence of the epidemic, the development of pre-made dishes has also been greatly accelerated.
It only takes a little heating to complete a delicious dish, and more and more pre-made dishes are beginning to go to the table of young consumers.
"For example, if you want to entertain friends for dinner at home, but you are not very good at cooking, then pre-made dishes can be 'emergency', allowing you to cook a 'big meal' in just an hour, and the price is not too expensive "Chen Zonghui told reporters that he and his team have done research and found that most of the consumers of pre-made dishes are post-90s and post-00s.
Chen Zonghui introduced that Guangdong has been at the forefront of the country in the development of prefabricated dishes, especially Guangzhou, where prefabricated dishes have made great strides towards high-quality development.
At present, there are dozens of large-scale prefabricated vegetable manufacturers in Guangzhou.
Taking a company as an example, its prefabricated vegetables currently mainly focus on its own brand quick-frozen Poon Choi series, Cantonese-style cooked food series such as dried tangerine peeled duck and salted chicken, and Cantonese-style soups, etc. At the same time, Poon Choi is processed for third-party brands. .
Prefabricated vegetable storage and distribution industry:
The newly rented 170,000 cubic meters of cold storage is still not enough
Mao Xiongyi has been engaged in the food production and distribution industry for more than 20 years, and he is the chairman of the two companies.
In his newly rented cold chain warehouse with a volume of 170,000 cubic meters in Tianhe District, all kinds of packaged ingredients are neatly stacked on fixed containers, and 2,000 tons of ingredients are shipped to various pre-made dishes in Guangzhou every day. manufacturer.
The temperature of this cold storage is -20 degrees Celsius all year round, and within half an hour of walking in, the reporter's hands were almost frozen.
The workers are working in full swing in the cold storage.
The shelves of the cold storage are divided into 6 layers, each layer is about two meters high, and the entire shelf height reaches 12 meters.
Workers use forklifts that can lift automatically to transport all kinds of neatly packaged ingredients to their respective shelves after coding and storing information.
All kinds of ingredients commonly found on the dining table of Guangzhou people can be found here.
"This row of shelves is for breakfast buns, such as quicksand buns and barbecued pork buns; this row of shelves is for soups, such as five-finger peach stewed pork ribs soup, cordyceps flower black chicken soup, coconut chicken soup, etc. that Guangzhou people often drink; In the first row, there are braised flavors, such as braised goose wings, braised pork belly, braised large intestines, etc. We have already prepared the seasonings, and we only need to heat them up and eat them directly at home.” Mao Xiongyi said.
Earlier, Mao Xiongyi had a cold chain warehouse with an area of 2,000 square meters in another industrial park in Guangzhou, specializing in the production and storage of beef products for distribution to catering companies.
However, with the rapid development of Guangzhou's prefabricated food industry, the variety and quantity of ingredients required by catering companies are also increasing.
Today, Mao Xiongyi provides ingredients and warehousing services to more than 60 companies, and his company already has nationwide distribution capabilities.
"On the eve of this year's Lantern Festival, we supply thousands of tons of glutinous rice balls every day; on the eve of Qingming Festival last year, we sent out thousands of roast suckling pigs weighing about 8 pounds every day. These suckling pigs take When you go home, you can eat it with a little heating." Speaking of the popularity of pre-made dishes over the years, Mao Xiongyi bluntly said "beyond imagination".
Today, the monthly rent, water, electricity, and labor costs of this cold storage newly rented by Mao Xiongyi are more than 1.5 million yuan. In Mao Xiongyi's view, as long as the downstream demand side is stable, this cost is still affordable.
As the list of downstream food supply companies became longer and longer, he gradually felt the pressure of supply.
"The rapid development of pre-made dishes has put forward high requirements on our warehousing and distribution capabilities. For example, a customer needs 2,000 servings of beef stew with potatoes, and we have to prepare it for him on the same day, even the seasonings, and even the dishes. Fry it, and deliver it to their central kitchen before the next morning." Mao Xiongyi told reporters that even if the newly rented 170,000 cubic meters of cold storage looks huge enough, as the business becomes larger and larger, he Gradually feel that this cold storage is not enough.
Catering companies:
Pre-cooked dishes can reduce costs by 20%
Mao Xiongyi introduced that for a long time, pre-made dishes are semi-finished dishes provided by upstream ingredient supply companies or food factories to catering chain companies.
Mao Xiongyi said that this industry includes raw material suppliers, food processing companies, catering companies, and even catering equipment (such as central kitchens) and related accessories production industries (such as steamers, balers, sealing machines) can also be in this industry. one ring.
Having been engaged in the food industry for more than 20 years, Mao Xiongyi said that the development of pre-made dishes has gone through a long-term brewing stage, and there are actually some signs before they become popular.
The "contactless consumption" model brought about by the epidemic has completely detonated the consumer demand for prepared dishes.
In his view, the popularity of pre-made dishes is mainly to meet the time-saving fast-moving consumer demand of some urban groups, but this change in consumption habits is a "market revolution" for catering companies.
For catering enterprises, through the prefabricated dish model, the cost can be greatly reduced in both the supply of ingredients, storage and labor costs.
"For example, if a fast food restaurant sells 1,000 fast food every day, and pre-orders and prepares 1,000 fast food ingredients in advance, there is no need for vegetable washers, dishwashers, or even chefs. Now some fast food companies have already used robots. It's cooking."
Mao Xiongyi said that for catering companies, if the sales of pre-made dishes are good, operating costs can be greatly reduced.
Through the prefabrication of dishes, the kitchen and storage area are compressed, and the rent cost is reduced, and the standardized production can also improve the speed of meal delivery and increase the turnover rate of the store; in addition, the prefabricated dish model breaks the catering business that only operates during three meals a day. The limitations of the store can allow them to have a large part of the incremental consumer group outside the store.
Mao Xiongyi's judgment on the market has also been recognized by many catering companies.
Mr. Huang, general manager of a chain catering company in Guangzhou, told reporters that his company has been involved in pre-made dishes a few years ago. At first, it was only to satisfy a small number of urban white-collar workers. However, due to the impact of the epidemic, pre-made dishes have become a lot of consumers. choose.
Through the independent central kitchen system, the company can chop, match and season the relevant ingredients one day in advance, and only need a little processing the next day to make various delicious dishes and deliver them to customers.
Mr. Huang said that for catering enterprises, the biggest advantage of pre-made dishes is that they can save production costs and make catering also a "light asset" industry, thereby enhancing the competitiveness of catering enterprises; at the same time, it can also expand the competitiveness of catering enterprises. Consumer groups, so that catering companies also have a large number of consumers "beyond the dining table".
For example, he used to open a restaurant, in addition to the storefront rent, the labor cost is also a considerable part, even a medium-sized restaurant, in addition to the chef, dishwashers, laborers, vegetables chopper These are indispensable, and even companies need their own raw material distribution staff.
But now through pre-made dishes, many dishes have been cleaned, distributed, cut into pieces, and prepared before entering the hands of consumers. Catering companies only need to process them, and even the processing link is omitted, because many dishes are Mature food can be made in advance, consumers only need to heat it and eat it, catering companies can save a lot of costs, and can also achieve accurate storage of raw materials, avoid waste, and save costs in warehousing and distribution.
Mr. Huang said that if pre-made dishes can maintain the current good development momentum, the production cost of enterprises can be reduced by 20%.
"In addition, in the restaurant, in addition to the diners we can see consuming in the store, there are also some diners who consume pre-made dishes at home, and we have more confidence in our hearts."
Industry pulse:
Lack of industry standards, supervision needs to be strengthened
Although they are very optimistic about the development prospects of prefabricated dishes, industry insiders also said that they should be vigilant about the problems faced in the current development of prefabricated dishes.
"Prepared vegetables have become a trend now, and a large influx of capital has been made. Many pre-prepared vegetables companies have obtained venture capital. But in my opinion, the investment of capital in this industry is a bit 'overheated'." Chen Zonghui said.
Chen Zonghui analyzed that, first of all, the market of pre-made vegetables has a certain regionality.
"The soup dumplings that Guangzhou people like to drink may not be sold in the northern market." Therefore, Chen Zonghui believes that the growth of prefabricated vegetables should be steady and medium-speed growth, rather than explosive growth; secondly, prefabricated vegetables are in nutrition and taste. There is still a certain gap between the top and fresh dishes.
Like Poon Choi, which is very popular during the Spring Festival, many Poon Choi can be enjoyed for up to one month.
"Even if it is abalone, seafood and shark fins, there is still some vegetables in the pot. It's hard to imagine the taste of reheating the vegetables after a month." Chen Zonghui said that consumers have never felt the freshness of pre-made dishes. It remains to be seen whether there will be some weakening over time.
Chen Zonghui said that there are still several major problems to be solved in the current prefabricated vegetable industry.
First, the industry entry threshold is low, and market supervision needs to be strengthened urgently.
He said that in addition to a large influx of funds into the prepared dish industry, many small businesses have also joined the prepared dish track.
"There is no doubt that some small enterprises and small workshops do not have the conditions for food production, nor do they have their own cold chain warehouses, nor do they have their own central kitchens, but they are actually delivering pre-made dishes to some catering companies. In this regard The supervision must be strengthened.” Second, there is still a lack of national and local standards for prepared dishes.
Because there are many varieties of pre-made dishes and they are very fine, and it is a fresh industry, there is no special industry standard yet.
Chen Zonghui said that at present, Guangzhou has not established a special prefabricated food industry association.
He suggested that industry associations could take the lead in formulating industry standards for prepared dishes in the future.
Mao Xiongyi also believes that the development of prefabricated dishes is broad, but the influx of capital into the prefabricated food track is somewhat "overheated" and requires "stepping on the brakes".
He believes that because the food industry is just in demand, some industries that are sluggish under the influence of the epidemic have flooded into the pre-made dishes track.
"Some of the people I know who used to be in the construction and building materials industries are now involved in the production of prefabricated vegetables. This phenomenon is worthy of vigilance." Mao Xiongyi said that it is very necessary for the government to coordinate the development of prefabricated vegetables. , such as the recently released "ten pre-made dishes" is very instructive.
Similar to Chen Zonghui's opinion, Mao Xiongyi also said that there is indeed a problem of low entry barriers in the pre-prepared vegetable industry, and the supervision of the upstream and downstream industries of pre-prepared vegetables needs to be strengthened.
"There are a lot of companies entering this industry now. You must know that the threshold for engaging in the food production industry is very detailed. For example, if your processed food is sauce, you must have a license for sauce, and if it is baking, you must have a license for the sauce. There are baking licenses, but due to the large demand for prepared dishes, some small catering companies entrust some small companies to supply raw materials and even finished products, and there are still loopholes in food safety.”
Mao Xiongyi said frankly that the prefabricated vegetable industry is still in the stage of extensive development. To develop high-quality prefabricated food in Guangzhou, it should establish its own industry association and formulate local standards.
"Now the production of prefabricated vegetables is implemented according to enterprise standards, and each enterprise's standards are different. For example, soup dumplings, how much solid content is required, and how long the shelf life is, are all formulated by the enterprise itself."
Mao Xiongyi said that the shelf life of pre-made dishes on the market now varies from 3 days to one year depending on factors such as preservation conditions and whether preservatives are added. .
For example, lo mei is very suitable for making pre-made dishes, and it will taste better if you leave it for a few days; meat is also easy to make pre-made dishes, and it is no problem to store it in a cold storage for half a year after cooking; but there are some dishes such as leafy vegetables. class, it is difficult to make pre-made dishes.
"It is necessary to formulate more standardized and standardized access conditions for prefabricated vegetable production enterprises by category, and there should also be detailed regulations on prefabricated vegetable raw materials, processing technology, storage, cold chain transportation, microbial indicators, additive indicators, and pesticide residue indicators." In addition, Mao Xiongyi also said that in the field of prefabricated dishes, there are many large-scale enterprises in Guangzhou, but the real leading enterprises are still relatively lacking. It is necessary to cultivate leading enterprises in the industry to drive the development of the industry as "locomotives".
How to develop high-quality prefabricated vegetables industry in Guangzhou?
Create a "chip" highland for the prefabricated dish industry, and develop special dishes in combination with local dining habits
Compared with the cautious attitude of industry insiders, the capital side is very optimistic about the prospect of pre-made dishes.
Xu Jianzhi, the person in charge of an investment company, told reporters that pre-made dishes are currently a very popular investment track. Pre-made dishes make catering consumption shift from restaurants to household consumption, which can not only greatly reduce costs, but also promote the high-quality development of the catering industry.
He believes that the catering industry has always had the problem of high labor costs. In addition, the proportion of small and medium-sized catering is relatively large, and the intensification is insufficient, and the procurement process is difficult to control.
The prefabricated dishes solve the above problems very well, because the prefabricated dishes adopt the central kitchen mode, and the raw materials are centrally purchased, which is more convenient to trace the source, the degree of industrialization is high, and the production cost can be well controlled. Good control and management.
Xu Jianzhi said that pre-made dishes mainly show great advantages in civilian meals, and even some high-end food can be greatly reduced in price through the way of pre-fabrication in the central kitchen to be accepted by the public.
"In the future, companies that provide catering services in the pre-cooked mode will be much more competitive."
Driven by the market environment and policies, the transformation of upstream suppliers into the pre-prepared vegetable industry is also following the trend.
The "2021 China Chain Catering Industry Report" pointed out that the current market size of my country's prepared vegetables industry is about 210 billion yuan, and the industry size is expected to grow to about 600 billion yuan by 2025.
Xu Jianzhi said that with the help of consumption upgrades, accelerated cold chain logistics layout and diversified Internet marketing, the pre-made vegetable market will maintain a high growth rate of more than 20% per year.
How can Guangzhou prefabricated dishes develop with high quality?
At the Guangzhou Two Sessions in 2022, Cheng Gang, Secretary-General of the Guangdong Catering Service Industry Association, as a representative of the Guangzhou Municipal People's Congress, put forward a proposal on prefabricated dishes: "Suggestions on Seizing the Commanding Heights of "Chip Design" and "Element Trading" in the Prefabricated Vegetable Industry" Cheng Gang believes that for the development of prefabricated dishes in Guangdong Province, we must first put research and development first, and give full play to the characteristics and advantages of the Guangdong catering industry. Vegetable industry "chip" highland.
In addition, enterprises should start from big data and select dishes suitable for pre-made dishes. After all, not all dishes are suitable for pre-made dishes.
Mao Xiongyi suggested that pre-made dishes should introduce special varieties for local dining habits.
Because of the clear local characteristics of restaurants in Guangdong Province, Guangzhou can introduce Cantonese cuisine, Meizhou and Heyuan can rely on Hakka cuisine, and Chaoshan area can develop Chaozhou cuisine to form their own characteristics.