What new trends are emerging in China's grain supply?
Recently, a kind of potato steamed bun——also called potato bun, quietly appeared and sold well in more than 200 supermarkets in Beijing. It is understood that by October this year, the sales range will also expand to more than 500 supermarkets in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
The launch of this bun, which looks slightly yellow and is not very different from traditional wheat steamed buns, does not simply mean the appearance of a new food product. Behind it is a major change in China's food security pattern over thousands of years——potatoes may become the fourth major staple grain variety after the three major staple grains of wheat, rice and corn. A new proposition concerning the food issue of 1.3 billion people is beginning to unfold.
A breakthrough work in development strategy, using more than 800 kg of potato flour for experiments
Yu Xinrong, Vice Minister of Agriculture, said that making potatoes a staple grain means processing potatoes into staple food products such as steamed buns, noodles and rice noodles, realizing the transformation from the current consumption as a side food to consumption as a staple food.
The potato bun is the first staple food product to appear after the Ministry of Agriculture publicly announced the potato staple grain development strategy at the beginning of this year. It was successfully developed over nearly two years by a specialized five-person team at the Institute of Agro-Products Processing Science and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The project is regarded as the breakthrough work of the potato staple grain strategy.
On the second floor of the Taoranting store of Beijing Wumart Hypermarket, bags of potato buns containing three buns each are placed together with traditional wheat steamed buns. From the outside, compared with wheat steamed buns, potato buns differ only slightly in color and are not very different in other respects.“When they first arrived, they were five yuan and eighty cents per bag. Starting yesterday, there was a special price, and a bag can be bought for four yuan and twenty cents.”A salesperson on site said that currently twenty to thirty bags can be sold per day, and customers are mainly buying them out of curiosity and to try something new.
Mu Taihua, chief scientist of the potato processing innovation team at the Institute of Agro-Products Processing Science and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, who is responsible for the project's research and development, said that the project started in 2013. The entire project involved 3 units, including the Institute of Food and Nutrition Development of the Ministry of Agriculture. More than ten people from the potato processing innovation team at the Institute of Agro-Products Processing Science and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences participated, of whom 5 were specifically responsible for developing potato buns, while others were responsible for developing other varieties such as stuffed buns and pastries.
Yu Xinrong believes that for a long time, the reason potatoes failed to become a staple grain was the“three lacks”: first, domestic potato consumption has always been mainly fresh eating, lacking staple food products that fit China's steaming and cooking food culture; second, there is a lack of specialized potato varieties and processing technologies suitable for Chinese staple food products such as noodles, rice and rice noodles; third, the public mostly regards potatoes as food for filling the stomach and satisfying hunger, and there is a lack of social environmental conditions to guide consumption as a staple food.
The proposal of the potato staple grain strategy and the success of the potato bun may change the above situation.
“We developed a new type of steamed bun by combining potato flour and wheat flour, which shows that potatoes can also be used to make a series of products suitable for Chinese traditional food culture. It is feasible for potatoes to become a staple grain.”Mu Taihua said.
Is the inclusion of potatoes as a staple grain because there is not enough grain to eat?
Relevant personnel believe that promoting potatoes to become China's fourth major staple grain variety aims to address the contradiction between the rigid growth of future grain demand and the difficulty of increasing production of ration varieties, and to open up a new path for ensuring national food security. The Ministry of Agriculture predicts that potatoes are nutritious and, after becoming a staple grain, can provide 400 billion jin of grain supply in the future.
However, although China's grain harvests have continued and the grain production situation is improving, this cannot conceal the pressure facing China's food security in the future. Experts predict that for a relatively long period in the future, China's grain consumption demand will still show a rigid growth trend, and by 2020 the increase in grain demand will be more than 100 billion jin. But constrained by arable land and water resources and affected by planting returns, the cost of continuing to increase production of ration varieties such as wheat and rice is rising, the space is shrinking, and the difficulty is increasing. To ensure China's food security, new ways to increase production need to be opened up.
“Potatoes are cold-resistant, drought-resistant and barren-tolerant, with wide adaptability. Potatoes can be planted in most areas from south to north and from high altitude to low altitude. In particular, developing and utilizing winter fallow fields in the south has great potential for expanding potato planting.”Yu Xinrong said,“the Ministry of Agriculture organized experiments in Hengshui, Hebei. In the North China groundwater overexploitation area with annual precipitation of 500 mm, under completely rain-fed conditions, potato yield per mu still reached 1.8 tons.”
According to statistics provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, the theoretical yield of potatoes per mu can reach 8 tons, while China's current average is only a little more than 1 ton. In the future, planting can be expanded to 150 million mu without crowding out the three major staple grains, and by promoting high-yield, efficient and sustainable technical models, the yield per mu can be increased to 2 tons. In this way, annual fresh potato output can increase by 200 million tons, that is, 400 billion jin, roughly equivalent to one third of the national total grain output in 2014.
In Mu Taihua's view, potatoes as a staple grain also have the benefit of being nutritious. He said:“From a nutritional perspective, potatoes have very comprehensive nutritional components and a relatively reasonable nutritional structure. They contain not only protein and calcium, but also rich vitamin B, vitamin C and various minerals.”
From side food to staple grain, how many hurdles must the“glamorous transformation”pass?
After nearly a month on the market, potato buns have performed well in the market. Li Lianggong, deputy general manager of Beijing Haile Da Food Co., Ltd., which promotes the project, told reporters that potato buns have already been rolled out in more than 240 supermarkets in Beijing, with monthly sales of about 5.5 million yuan to 6 million yuan. At the highest point, 800 to 900 bags of 350 grams each could be sold in a day, with average daily sales at the level of 500 to 600 bags. Now the weather is hot, which is the off-season for sales. After autumn when it turns cold, sales during the peak season for steamed buns should increase substantially.
“At present, potato bun sales account for 1% of our steamed bun sales, and the market response is good. Our goal is to launch some new products in October, expand stores in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region to 500, and reach daily sales of two tons.”Li Lianggong said.
However, reporters found through interviews that for potatoes to truly and completely transform into a staple grain, they must pass at least“three hurdles”ahead.
——The first hurdle is to have technology and materials that make it convenient for millions of households to prepare. One prerequisite for potatoes to become a staple grain is that, like making steamed buns from wheat flour or rice from rice grains, every household can conveniently make food that suits its own taste. Potato flour is not like wheat flour. At present, there are difficulties such as difficult fermentation, difficult shaping, high viscosity and easy cracking. Mu Taihua told reporters that his team is trying to develop a leavening agent formula that can be used in households.“The goal is that after this leavening agent is developed, as long as the processing method is noted on the packaging, people can process the food they need at home according to the instructions”.
——The second hurdle is that the price must be affordable for ordinary people. A salesperson at the Taoranting store of Wumart Hypermarket told reporters that at present, during the promotion stage, potato buns are almost twice as expensive as wheat steamed buns. Li Lianggong said this is mainly because potato flour is expensive. Recently, wheat flour is about three to four thousand yuan per ton, while potato flour costs at least nine thousand yuan per ton.
——The third hurdle is that it needs to be accepted and recognized by consumers. Relevant experts said that China has a vast territory, and dietary habits vary greatly from region to region. For potatoes to become a staple grain, there must be products with diverse styles and different tastes that meet the diversified needs of different groups and different regions, so that they can be recognized and accepted by consumers. Li Lianggong said:“On the one hand, this requires publicity and guidance; on the other hand, it also depends on the market. To reach the level of popularity of wheat steamed buns, it is estimated that it will take until 2020.”
At the same time, some experts also proposed that basic research on potato processing needs to be strengthened.“For example, the issue of fermentation. Wheat contains gluten protein, which makes it easy to ferment and expand, while potatoes do not contain this protein and are not as easy to ferment as wheat. This requires basic research to solve.”Mu Taihua said.