China News Service, Shijiazhuang, May 21 (Li Yusu) Affected by the new crown epidemic, pre-made dishes with no cutting, washing, no seasoning, and simple operation ushered in the trend, and their market also ushered in explosive growth.
Under the tuyere, how can the prefabricated vegetable industry "ride the wind" and seize the opportunity for development?
Pre-made dishes, also known as "semi-finished dishes", are prepared in the central kitchen, frozen or vacuum-packed for storage, and sold to restaurants or consumers in a "semi-finished" state.
Shijiazhuang Huikang Food Co., Ltd. is a prefabricated vegetable manufacturer. According to Mei Shanshan, a staff member of the company, due to the repeated impact of the epidemic, prefabricated dishes have been favored by many consumers due to their convenient storage, fast consumption, and diverse tastes. Pay attention, "Especially for C-end products and online products, our sales have achieved rapid growth this year."
The lazy economy and the epidemic of staying at home have brought about changes in consumption habits, and pre-made dishes have gradually moved from niche to mainstream consumption, which has also attracted many investors to deploy.
Kong Runchang, vice-chairman of the Hebei Provincial Specialty Food Industry and Culture Research Association, said in an interview: "According to relevant statistics, there are currently more than 5,000 prefabricated vegetable enterprises in Hebei Province, but the prefabricated vegetable enterprises are relatively scattered as a whole, and they are divided into small and micro enterprises. Enterprises are the main ones, and no large-scale single-product or large-scale enterprises have been incubated yet.”
Kong Runchang added that the funding problem is an important bottleneck for the healthy development of the prefabricated vegetable industry. "Due to the low threshold for the industry, many companies are small in scale. Due to the lack of real estate mortgages and other guarantees, financing is more difficult. In addition, many prefabricated vegetable companies are still in In the primary processing stage, risks in procurement, production, transportation, sales and other links cannot be effectively controlled, which may lead to losses and affect operations due to accidents.”
Shijiazhuang Huikang Food Co., Ltd. production line.
Photo courtesy of Shijiazhuang Huikang Food Co., Ltd.
Among the prefabricated vegetable production enterprises, there are also some enterprises that have achieved "specialization and specialization".
"Specialized, refined and new" refers to those small and medium-sized enterprises that are "specialized, refined, characteristic, and outstanding in innovation ability".
In December 2021, the Hebei Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology announced a notice identifying 327 enterprises including Shijiazhuang Huikang Food Co., Ltd. as the fourth batch of “specialized, refined, and new” demonstration enterprises in Hebei Province.
In the 2022 government work report of the State Council, it is proposed that the innovation-driven development strategy will be implemented in depth this year to consolidate and strengthen the foundation of the real economy.
Among them, it will focus on cultivating "specialized, special and new" enterprises, and give strong support in terms of funds, talents, and incubation platform construction.
In this regard, some financial institutions actively responded to the policy call and took action.
Postal Savings Bank of China Shijiazhuang Branch formulates special support policies for "specialized, special and new" enterprises like Shijiazhuang Huikang Food Co., Ltd., provides customized service plans, and can provide credit loans of up to 30 million yuan for enterprises that meet the standards .
In order to seize the development of the prefabricated vegetable industry, this year, Shijiazhuang Huikang Food Co., Ltd. will also expand the production scale and plan to add prefabricated vegetable production lines and procurement equipment.
After learning about the company's food business and capital needs, the Shijiazhuang Branch of the Postal Savings Bank of China "delivered a loan to the door" and issued a credit loan of 10 million yuan in only about one month.
According to Jia Hongxin from the Inclusive Finance Department of the Shijiazhuang Branch of Postal Savings Bank of China, up to now, the branch has served 147 “specialized, specialized, and new” enterprises, and has lent 3.349 billion yuan over the years. Special new technology loan, to provide loan support for specialized, specialized and new enterprises, to expand the coverage of credit-based technology loan business, to help specialized, specialized and new enterprises to solve problems such as difficulty in mortgage and guarantee, and further promote the resumption of work and production of small and medium-sized enterprises."
At present, the prefabricated vegetable industry has not yet issued a unified national standard, but various localities have issued relevant policies to support the development of the local prefabricated vegetable industry according to actual conditions.
For example, Guangdong Province has issued the "Ten Measures to Accelerate the High-quality Development of Guangdong's Prefabricated Vegetable Industry".
In April, the China Prefabricated Vegetable Industry Alliance was formally established, becoming the first national self-regulatory organization for the prefabricated vegetable industry, and it also provided organizational guarantees for better promoting the high-quality development of the prefabricated vegetable industry.
Where will the future of prepared dishes go?
Kong Runchang said that at present, there is no clear study on whether frequent consumption of pre-made dishes affects people's nutritional intake and health. There is still a certain gap between pre-made dishes and fresh dishes in terms of nutrition and taste. Therefore, the development of similar "health data + New processing formats such as "nutritious meals" may be a development direction in the future.
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