Imbalances in meat supply and demand can be adjusted through processing innovation

For a long time, "cheap meat hurts farmers, expensive meat hurts consumers" has plagued the breeding industry. Between declines and rises, the interests of all parties refuse to yield to one another, and the result is often that there is no absolute winner. And in the maze of "wild swings," most practitioners find it difficult to find a clear direction forward, which is not conducive to the healthy development of the livestock industry.

How to escape the recurring strange cycles such as the "pig cycle"? Industry insiders have placed their hopes on the meat processing industry. The industry believes that only by raising the level of meat processing, optimizing the market supply structure of products, and at the same time taking into account the interests of all links such as breeding, processing, sales and consumption, can this chaotic pattern of sudden rises and falls be avoided and a win-win outcome for all be achieved.

However, when countless forces rushed into the ranks of meat processing, the processing industry instead faced harsh realities such as shrinking consumption of ham sausages and canned meat quietly leaving the market, forcing us to re-examine the shift in consumer concepts in the new era: only by being faster, smarter, more personalized, healthier and safer can one win the market. Thus, in recent years, new-style meat products such as pork jerky, coconut-flavored grilled sausages, walnut ham sausages and barbecue packs have begun to emerge on the market. Their outer packaging has even been creatively printed with words such as "private customization," "passionate love" and "fresh and artsy," drawing old customers to come and "try something new," while also "winning over" a group of emerging consumer groups.

Recently, in Shilin County, Yunnan Province, a food company appeared that uses pork to make dumpling wrappers. According to reports, the company uses original-ecology pork to make dumpling wrappers. From beating lean meat into a paste, to adding sweet potato flour and hand-rolling it into dumpling wrappers, to using pork hind leg meat to make the filling, every process insists on being completed purely by hand, and it creatively combines Wenzhou flavors with Yunnan flavors. It is deeply favored by consumers in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Chongqing and other places, and demand exceeds supply. It is understood that this creative idea is the first of its kind in all of Yunnan Province. Undoubtedly, using pork to make dumpling wrappers is a positive innovation in the meat processing industry and has achieved good benefits, which can stimulate more practitioners' enthusiasm for innovation.

However, innovation is not the same as pursuing inventions. Its scope cannot be limited only to meat products that predecessors have not developed. Rather, one must open up one's thinking, ensure one does not act blindly, follow trends or do things deliberately, increase efforts in researching and developing new products and upgrading and transforming existing products according to local conditions, as well as handling their market launch formats in personalized and diversified ways. It can also be understood this way: as long as it meets the requirements of the relevant national food laws and regulations, respects the market consumption habits of different groups, different regions and different periods, and creatively handles the raw materials, appearance, flavor and packaging of livestock and poultry products, and such products also have sufficient consumer demand in the market, can save costs and reduce consumption, and can improve the level of food safety and economic benefits, then such products have already achieved innovation in the true sense.

"After ten months of pregnancy, birth comes in a single day." Innovation in meat products is not achieved overnight, nor is it a simple matter of addition and multiplication. Rather, it must undergo repeated tests by the market and repeated adjustments between supply and demand. When one kind of meat can be processed into hundreds or thousands of foods and is widely praised by the market, then naturally ten kinds of livestock and poultry can have tens of millions of sales channels, and the strange phenomena of "cheap meat hurts farmers, expensive meat hurts consumers" and the "pig cycle" will all be greatly alleviated as a result.