Nation develops appetite for pre-made food

Visitors sample dishes at a pre-made food expo in Rizhao, Shandong province, in February. GUO XULEI/XINHUA

Industry witnesses significant rise in recent years

When a bamboo shoot is dug from the earth in Lin'an city, Zhejiang province, the countdown begins. Within 72 hours, the fresh spring ingredient is made into yan du xian, a soup with fresh and pickled streaky pork, and placed on shelves at Freshippo supermarkets, a fresh food chain owned by Alibaba. Feng Juan, who makes purchases for Freshippo, started preparing for the arrival of the bamboo shoots just after Spring Festival. "We ordered them a month in advance and finalized the recipe," she said. "Yan du xian is a classic southern dish that has gained popularity in northern areas of China in the past two years. It's not that difficult to make it into a pre-cooked product, but the hard part is using fresh seasonal bamboo shoots." Feng keeps an eye on when the shoots are ready to be harvested. "As soon as they are harvested, work starts immediately on the shoots in factories," she said, adding that six factories in different locations await their arrival.

To retain their freshness and sweetness, the shoots are peeled and cut by farmers within 24 hours of being harvested, before being sent to the factories by cold-chain transportation. In recent years, the pre-made food industry in China has experienced a significant rise, characterized by a shift toward healthier and more convenient options through the development of innovative products. Furthermore, the industry has embraced new technologies in processing methods and supply chain innovation.

On Feb 13, the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council issued the No 1 Central Document, which referred for the first time to the importance of cultivating and developing the pre-made food industry. During this year's two sessions annual political gatherings, Zheng Simin, a deputy to the National People's Congress and chairwoman of Shandong Delisi Food, submitted suggestions about developing the industry. She feels that although the industry has been developing well, it has weaknesses, such as a lack of industrial and national standardization, which could hamper its long-term development. Zheng suggested launching a development fund to support the industry in fields such as technology research, talent training, and standardization of Chinese cuisine.

An international pre-made food expo is held in Xinxiang, Henan province, this month. ZHANG HAORAN/XINHUA

Data from the China Pre-made Food Alliance show the number of pre-cooked food companies in the nation has risen from 2,000 a decade ago to more than 70,000. Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report, a research, media and investments business best known for its Hurun Rich List, which ranks the wealthiest individuals in China, said the nation's pre-cooked food industry has developed rapidly in recent years.

In 2021, the market scale of this industry reached about 350 billion yuan ($50.8 billion), a year-on-year rise of 20 percent, and it is expected to exceed 1 trillion yuan within the next five years, he said. During the International Precooked Food Industry Conference in Foshan, Guangdong province, early last month, the Hurun China Precooked Food Companies 2023 catalog was released by the Hurun Research Institute and the conference organizers.

It was the first time Hurun had released a top-100 list of pre-cooked food companies. Such food can be categorized into four main types based on the level of processing difficulty: ready-to-assemble; ready-to-cook; ready-to-heat; and ready-to-eat. Of the companies featured on the list, 44 percent specialize in ready-to-cook products, while 25 percent offer ready-to-assemble options.

The list shows that Guangdong is home to the largest number of these companies, with 20 based in the province. Shanghai and Beijing are second and third, with 14 and 12 companies, respectively.

More than half the companies on the list, including Anjoy Foods and Qianwei Yangchu Food, focus primarily on food processing. In addition, one-fifth of them are caterers, such as Yum China, Meizhou Dongpo, and Juewei Food. Hoogewerf said he hopes the list can help more people take notice of and understand the pre-cooked food industry and also attract more powerful enterprises to this field. "The industry has entered a golden age of rapid development and innovation. I believe the list will be quite different in five years, as it will include many emerging companies. We hope to encourage more new and innovative enterprises to enter this industry," he said. Hoogewerf thinks related policies in different regions, such as the issuance of 10 measures to accelerate high-quality development of the industry in Guangdong, have played a role in stimulating development of the pre-cooked food market.