Staple foods lead dietary trends, processing boosts agricultural efficiency
Steamed buns, noodles and rice are staple foods that Chinese people cannot do without every day. As the pace of life accelerates, fewer and fewer people mix dough and steam buns or roll out noodles at home, and standardized, factory-produced staple food products have become the choice of more people. Yet in the face of growing market demand, China's staple food processing level is relatively low, standards and technical regulations are lacking, and the staple food processing industry urgently needs upgrading.
A survey conducted by the College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering at China Agricultural University shows that at present the average Chinese household spends about 95 minutes a day cooking, a decrease of 45 minutes on average compared with 2000. 70% of grain-based staple foods in cities and 40% in rural areas depend on market purchases. The way Chinese households prepare staple foods is shifting from mainly home-made to socialized supply, with growing reliance on industrial production of staple foods.
Modern staple foods include traditional flour and rice staples as well as prepared dishes. In Europe and America the main processed varieties are bread, pizza, ham and sausages, and potato products; in the Asia-Pacific region they are mainly instant noodles, instant rice, croquettes and frozen dumplings. In China, the popularity of rice cookers means that almost all households make rice at home; while for flour foods such as steamed buns, steamed rolls and noodles, because the production process is complex and the automation level of supporting equipment is low, residents mostly buy them outside the home. As for prepared foods, thanks to the popularity of microwave ovens, the proportion of residents buying semi-finished products for simple preparation and consumption is also increasing.
Although sales of all kinds of flour and rice staple foods and prepared dishes in China are very brisk, data show that in developed countries industrial staple food products account for more than 60% of total staple food consumption, while in China the figure is still less than 20%. Zong Jinyao, director of the Department of Agricultural Product Processing of the Ministry of Agriculture, said that China's staple food processing level is relatively low, standards and technical regulations are lacking, and technology, processes and equipment research and development lag behind, causing large quantities of staple food products to depend on small workshops and street vendors for processing and supply.
"There is basically no pollution in the staple food production process; the biggest problem at present is the lack of technology." Liu Xiaozhen, director of the Henan Province Flour-based Staple Food Engineering Research Center, said that unlike other industries, no ready-made foreign equipment can be introduced for staple food processing; only Chinese people themselves can design and build it.
Since the Ministry of Agriculture implemented the staple food processing industry upgrading action in 2012, the trend of industrial and commercial capital entering the staple food processing industry has become increasingly obvious. The staple food processing industry is increasingly becoming a key sector with huge growth potential in China's agricultural product processing industry. Experts estimate that in China alone, flour and rice staple foods, from processing to equipment manufacturing and logistics, can reach an industrial scale of 1 trillion yuan. According to statistics, in 2013 the main business revenue of staple food processing enterprises above the designated size engaged in flour and rice manufacturing and quick-frozen food manufacturing nationwide reached 136.3 billion yuan, with total profits of 9.4 billion yuan.
Shandong Zhongyu Wheat Industry is a national-level demonstration enterprise in the agricultural product processing industry. In order to meet people's demand for high-quality, multi-category flour, and as the market expanded, in 2011 it built a 300,000-ton specialty flour production line, and in 2012 it built a production line for patterned dried noodles with an annual output of 100,000 tons. Since last year, Zhongyu has further transformed flour and noodles into foods, opening self-operated specialty food stores and establishing the "Falanca 1876" Western-style and "Mianshijia" Chinese-style chain stores.
Company deputy general manager Zhang Zhiqiang introduced that "Falanca 1876" achieves standardized production of pastry foods through centralized baking, with 90% of the food in stores supplied directly by the baking plant. In the store, quick-frozen dough can be baked on site, and customers can buy steaming, freshly baked bread after a short wait. At "Mianshijia," in order to satisfy Chinese people's preference for Chinese-style pastries, a quick-frozen food production line was built, with quick-frozen dumplings and wontons as the main products.
"Nationwide, developing the staple food processing industry, processing traditional staples such as flour and rice, can generally raise product value by more than 3 times on the basis of the raw grain." Zong Jinyao said that upgrading the staple food processing industry requires focusing, in advantageous agricultural product producing areas and the suburbs of large and medium-sized cities, on cultivating a group of leading staple food processing enterprises with clear property rights, standardized production, integrated technology, scientific management and branded operations; in the "industry-university-research" field of staple food processing, researching, promoting and applying a batch of innovative achievements in advanced technological equipment; and in the "production-processing-sales" field of staple food processing, building a batch of influential matchmaking and cooperation platforms to construct a modern staple food processing industry system.