"When I get back to Earth, I want to eat Xiangyang Beef Noodles the most!" The words of Nie Haisheng, an astronaut of Shenzhou 12, during an interview in space made Xiangyang Beef Noodles and Beef Noodles go viral.

In a small bowl of beef offal, not only the hero's strong homesickness is filled, but also a big industry has been cultivated, which has won the love of many consumers.

　　"Boss, Erliang Beef Noodles!" Every day when the morning sun is slightly dew, the day of Xiangyang people starts with a bowl of beef noodles.

Half a basket of soda noodles and half a basket of bean sprouts, blanched several times in boiling water, poured into a bowl, poured beef bone broth, scooped a spoonful of beef, beef offal... On the Friendship Street on the west side of the Fancheng Bridge, the first bridge of the Han River in Xiangyang City, Hubei Province, The smell of butter was in the air.

　　At 6:00 a.m. on March 30, there was a long queue in front of Saijiaxiwa Noodle House, and until 10:00 a.m., there were slightly fewer people.

The Deng Family Beef Brisket and Gong Laosan Beef Noodle House next to them were also crowded.

　　Through "building a brand, improving quality, and enriching products", Xiangyang City focuses on the construction of beef noodle brands, and takes multiple measures to open up a broader market for Xiangyang beef noodles.

hometown taste

　　The ancient city of Xiangyang is an important wharf of the 3,000-mile Han River.

The unique geographical location makes the cuisine of the North and the South meet here. Just for breakfast, dozens of special varieties such as Hu spicy soup, clear soup, brown sugar cake, lard cake, and sour pulp noodles can be listed.

Among many breakfast categories, Xiangyang Beef Noodles has always been the favorite of Xiangyang people.

　　According to Li Wei, president of Xiangyang Beef Noodle Industry Association, Xiangyang Beef Noodles became popular in the 1990s.

At that time, the residents of Xiangyang Hanjiang Bridge North Bridge were good at making pasta with beef and beef offal, and gradually turned beef noodles into local specialties.

Since entering the 21st century, Xiangyang beef noodle restaurants have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.

　　Set up two large pots, one to boil soup, one to boil water, four bamboo poles erected in front of the house, and a plastic shed to open the door for business.

With little capital investment and low technical thresholds, many ordinary people get out of poverty and become rich by opening noodle restaurants.

　　Saijiaxiwa Noodle House has gone through three generations, and the current owner is a 33-year-old twin brother.

Sai Jingjian, the elder brother, said: "The Sai family has been opening a noodle shop since the grandmother's generation. At that time, he tried to put beef offal into the soda noodles, but it was very popular. Later, there were tofu noodles, kelp noodles, beef tendon noodles, etc. Xiangyang beef noodle series products.”

　　The essence of Xiangyang Beef Noodles lies in butter, which is made with beef bones for soup. More than a dozen traditional Chinese medicines and seasonings are combined with vegetable oil to make condiments, and then served with spicy oil, which has a unique taste and rich nutrition.

Until now, Saijia still maintains the tradition of getting up at 4 am to boil butter.

　　"We are open 360 days a year. According to the backstage statistics of the cash register system, some customers eat in the store for 357 days." Sai Jingjian said that a bowl of noodles has been passed down for three generations and has a large number of loyal consumers.

　　According to incomplete statistics, there are currently 6,500 breakfast noodle restaurants in Xiangyang City with "Xiangyang Beef Noodles" or "XX Noodle House" as their signs, and there are more than 1,100 noodle restaurants with "Xiangyang" or "Xiangfan" elements outside Xiangyang City. , with a total number of more than 7,600.

Except for the local ones in Xiangyang, these noodle restaurants are mainly distributed in Wuhan, Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Zhengzhou, Shenzhen and other places.

　　How big is the economic benefit from this?

Yu Tao, director of the Agriculture Office of the Xiangyang Municipal Party Committee and director of the Municipal Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau, calculated an account: Among the more than 7,600 Xiangyang beef noodle restaurants nationwide, there are more than 30,000 migrant workers, and the total net income from labor services reaches 2.6 billion yuan.

Xiangyang Beef Noodles drives the distribution of upstream noodle processing, beef (offal), soup packs and condiments, and 56 downstream enterprises including rice wine and soybean milk unified distribution, and instant beef noodles processing and sales, with an annual operating income of about 180 million yuan.

In 2020, the whole industry output value of Xiangyang beef noodles will reach 4.6 billion yuan, and the turnover of Xiangyang beef noodles in the city will reach 2.37 billion yuan, accounting for 11.8% of the city's total catering business.

Break through the bottleneck

　　"Enrolling students all year round", there is a poster on the wall of Saijiaxiwa Noodle House.

In fact, the owner of Gong Laosan Beef Noodle House, which is only two facades away from Saijia Xiwa Noodle House, is one of Saijia's students.

Sai Jingjian said that there are six or seven stores in Xiangyang that have learned the technology and opened stores in his home.

　　In a restaurant called Xiangxiaozi Beef and Offal Noodles in Dingzhong Street, Fancheng District, more than a dozen students from Henan, Anhui, Jiangxi and Shandong are learning the making techniques of Xiangyang Beef Noodles.

The store manager Zhang Hu introduced that the store not only sells beef (offal) noodles, but is also responsible for training chefs.

In the past five years, thousands of foreign students have come to study every year, especially after the aerospace hero Nie Haisheng shouted that he wanted to eat beef noodle from his hometown, more foreigners came to study.

　　In recent years, some chef schools and other training institutions in Xiangyang have also made beef noodle skills training as a special project, and the training led by the government is even more popular.

For example, the Jingyi Building of Xiangyang Technician College has held 18 beef noodle skill training courses with nearly 3,000 trainees.

　　The brick-and-mortar noodle restaurants that are blooming everywhere spread the old taste of Xiangyang, and the convenient and fast instant boxed noodles make this local cuisine go further.

In terms of boxing, the "Hometown of Xiang" launched by Hubei Xiangmao Catering Co., Ltd. is ahead.

　　The machine can control temperature to boil oil and accurately feed ingredients, and can produce more than 40 packets of seasoning powder in one minute. From 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., it can produce more than 4,000 finished products a day. Advanced automation equipment replaces a lot of labor.

According to Zhao Wei, the founder of the company, the core of quality stability lies in the standardization of production, which is also a key element in the development of Xiangyang Boxed Beef Noodles.

　　In July 2016, the product was officially launched, and in early 2017, the "Xiangjiali" brand was born.

Local alkaline noodles are paired with seasoning packets, and you can eat authentic Xiangyang beef noodles in a few minutes.

Since then, "Xiangguli" products have also covered common flavors such as beef offal noodles, kelp noodles, and tofu noodles.

　　Today, the company not only has a stable production team, but also has an online marketing team of 70 to 80 people, who can sell 4,000 to 5,000 boxed noodles in two or three days.

The Xiangyang boxed beef noodles with a market price of 15.8 yuan sold an annual output value of 12 million yuan.

Quality upgrade

　　In July 2020, the trademark "Xiangyang Beef Noodles" was approved and registered by the State Intellectual Property Office, and it was approved to be used in "restaurants, restaurants, fast food restaurants" and other places and "noodles, instant noodles, dried noodles" and other commodities.

　　Although the development momentum is good, Xiangyang Beef Noodles has various brand logos, different quality standards, no perfect management standards and unified business model, and its market competitiveness and ability to resist risks are still relatively weak, unable to form a brand scale effect, and its reputation is far inferior Liuzhou snail noodles, Lanzhou noodles.

　　In order to accelerate Xiangyang's beef noodle industry to go global, Xiangyang City has formulated the "Implementation Plan for the Development of Beef Noodle Industry Clusters (2021-2025)".

"Standardization is the key for beef noodles to go global. It is necessary to unify the logo, process and brand to form a regional public brand effect." Wang Pengfei, the mayor of Fancheng District, told reporters, "We are learning from the Liuzhou snail noodles model and introducing the main body to build a central kitchen. "

　　"For the catering industry, the supply of raw materials is the key. We will improve the level of raw material supply and speed up the construction of raw material demonstration bases and central kitchens." Yu Tao said that relevant departments will strengthen technical support for raw material planting and processing, and coordinate the promotion of Xiangyang. The raw materials of beef noodles are safe.

By 2025, the planting ratio of high-quality special wheat in the northern Hubei Gangland, mainly in Xiangzhou, Zaoyang and Laohekou, will be stabilized at more than 90%, and the beef cattle breeding base will produce 300,000 heads per year; vigorously promote wheat, beef cattle, oil, pepper, Construction of production and processing bases for pepper, garlic, tofu, etc.; support various entities to build a central kitchen project for Xiangyang beef noodle industry, and implement unified procurement, processing and distribution of raw materials to improve the standardized management level of Xiangyang beef noodle.

　　At the same time, implement the leading enterprise cultivation project, support Xiangyang beef noodle industry chain enterprises to build an industrial network through direct sales, franchise, distribution and other forms, and expand the scale of the enterprise.

"For the first batch of standardized chain operations of Xiangyang Beef Noodle Flagship Stores in other places, and after one year of effective operation, the city's Beef Noodle Office has passed the on-site acceptance inspection. The municipal finance will give appropriate rewards through the Municipal Federation of Industry and Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce in other cities." Yu Tao said .

　　"Nie Haisheng said at the space station that he wanted to eat Xiangyang Beef Noodles the most when he returned to Earth. This is the best promotion for Xiangyang's agricultural product brand. We will strive to reach 20,000 Xiangyang Beef Noodle shops by 2025, and the upstream and downstream of the industry chain. There are more than 100 leading enterprises, and the output value of the whole industry chain has reached more than 10 billion yuan." Ma Xuming, vice chairman of the Hubei Provincial Political Consultative Conference and secretary of the Xiangyang Municipal Party Committee, said that it is necessary to take the regional public brands such as Xiangyang beef noodles as the leader to accelerate the building of the entire agricultural industry chain and promote "Selling resources" has changed to "selling products, brands, technologies, and culture" to promote the integrated development of primary, secondary and tertiary industries.

(Economic Daily reporter Liu Jie and Dong Qingsen)