Trillion level market! What is the strategy of Yuanfeng Haike, as giants enter the pre made food market one after another

The rise of every industrial ecosystem is inseparable from changes in people's living habits.Prefabricated dishes are like this!

 

In recent years, due to the continuous outbreak of the epidemic, new business formats such as online work, home work, and online conferences have emerged one after another. In addition, with the development of the lazy economy, the 80s, 90s, and even 00s have become the mainstream consumer group in China. Due to the busy work and life pressure, everyone is unwilling to spend too much time on "going to the kitchen".    

 

In this context, the pre made food industry has emerged and become a new trend in catering and home consumption!

 

The birth and emergence of pre made vegetables not only changed household consumption habits, but also became an accelerator for rural revitalization, helping the transformation and upgrading of county-level agricultural industrialization, scale, and modernization.

Trillion level market, giants are laying out pre made dishes one after another

 

What is a pre made dish?

 

From a conceptual perspective, pre made dishes are convenient dishes that are designed to cater to the complex cooking procedures of home banquet dishes. Modern standardized assembly lines are used to prepare the ingredients, simplify the production steps, and are packaged in a hygienic and scientific manner. They can then be directly consumed through heating or steaming. With the acceleration of the pace of life and the transformation of catering trends, pre made dishes are becoming increasingly popular among consumers, and the market size is steadily increasing.

 

Data shows that the estimated size of China's pre made vegetable market in 2021 is 345.9 billion yuan，With the upgrading of consumption and the layout of cold chain logistics, the prefabricated food market will accelerate the development of both the B and C ends, and will continue to grow at a rate of 20% year by year. It is expected that the scale of prefabricated food in China will be 515.6 billion yuan in 2023，In the next 6-7 years, China's prefabricated food industry is expected to achieve a scale of over one trillion yuan, becoming the "next trillion yuan blue ocean market".

Through perspective, it is found that the prefabricated food market has broad prospects and accelerates enterprise layout, but competition is also very fierce. A set of data reveals that in 2012, there were 2753 registered pre made food related enterprises in China, but by 2020, this number had reached 12983. Starting from 2021, the concept stocks of pre made dishes have experienced several collective explosions. Enterprises upstream and downstream of pre made dishes such as Zhenwei Xiaomeiyuan, Sanbanyoucai, Xuwei Lion, and Wangjiahuan all obtained financing in 2021. In November 2021, Xianmeilai submitted its IPO materials on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's main board, planning to compete in the IPO track of pre made seafood dishes.

In addition to the emerging forces, traditional agriculture and food, as well as internet giants, have also entered the pre made vegetable market.For example, companies such as Sanquan Food, Shengnong Development, Anjing Food, Hengxing Group, Guolian Aquatic, Dingdong Maicai, and Meiri Youxian, as well as internet companies, have begun to crazily layout the pre made vegetable industry.

 

At the same time, local governments are actively supporting the development of pre made dishes. For example, provinces and cities such as Zhejiang, Shandong, Fujian, and Henan have successively launched a series of policy measures to support the development of local pre made food industry. Among them, in March of this year, the General Office of the People's Government of Guangdong Province also issued the "Ten Measures to Accelerate the High Quality Development of Guangdong's Prefabricated Vegetable Industry", which is the first provincial-level policy for the prefabricated vegetable industry in China, and the degree of attention paid to prefabricated vegetables is evident.

 
For agriculture, pre made vegetables have increased the premium space for agricultural products and solidified the foundation of the industrial chain. 
As is well known, pre made dishes refer to finished or semi-finished products made from agricultural, livestock, poultry, and aquatic products as raw materials, combined with various auxiliary materials, and pre processed. Prefabricated vegetables are a new model of integrated development of rural primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, which is conducive to the development of rural industries, more conducive to increasing farmers' income and wealth, and has positive significance for local and county-level economic development. 

 

  After 25 years of immersion in the abalone industry, Xiao Liangdong, Chairman of Fujian Fengyun Abalone Industry Co., Ltd., told the agricultural industry observation that the prefabricated vegetable industry is an important carrier for promoting the high-quality development of modern agriculture and food industry clusters, and promoting the revitalization of rural industries. County level agriculture and enterprises will rely on agricultural resource endowments, leverage the advantages of first mover, first mover, and first mover, take advantage of the situation, seize the "commanding heights" of this industry, Make pre made dishes a new driving force for high-quality economic development during the 14th Five Year Plan period 
As early as 2019, Fuzhou Yuanfeng Marine Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Yuanfeng Haike), jointly established by Fujian Fengyun Abalone Industry Co., Ltd., Fujian Hongdong Holdings Co., Ltd., and Yuanfeng (Lianjiang) Investment Partnership, set its sights on the pre made vegetable market and established its main business as abalone and pre made abalone dishes. 
In recent years, Yuanfeng Haike Company has focused on building a first-class demonstration enterprise with industry competitiveness in terms of technology, management, quality, and service. It has implemented a "two wheel drive" strategy and is committed to building the "first brand in the abalone industry" and "leader in abalone pre made dishes", continuously promoting high-quality development of the enterprise.

Opportunities and challenges coexist, seeking explosive points in the industry

"Prefabricated food has just emerged in China and is still in its early stages. For the industry and enterprises, opportunities and challenges coexist in the prefabricated food industry," said Xiao Liangdong. "Although capital is hot, the prefabricated food industry needs to endure lonely people and participants need to constantly practice.".

 

       Data shows that currently, the pre packaged food consumption market in China is mainly concentrated in first and second tier cities, accounting for 45.7% and 19.8% of the market share, respectively. Other data also shows that in terms of the regional distribution of the prefabricated food industry, the market share in East China was the largest at 32% in 2021, followed by South China, North China, Southwest and Central China, all accounting for over 10%. This means that there is still a vast market space for the prefabricated food industry.
Industry insiders have pointed out that in order for brands to win in the pre packaged food market, the first step is to enhance the production and research capabilities of the dishes, and the second is to ensure food safety and quality in the procurement, storage, logistics, and distribution processes.
In addition, from the current development of the prefabricated food industry, regional characteristics are still quite evident. On the one hand, it is because there are significant differences in flavors among different regions, which leads to many pre made food products being unable to break regional restrictions. On the other hand, due to the limitations of pre packaged vegetables preservation and logistics transportation radius, regional characteristics are also evident.
In this situation, prefabricated food brands need to have the ability to create differentiation and innovation, as well as establish an efficient logistics and transportation system to help brands occupy more people's dining tables.

However, the pre made food industry looks beautiful, but the lack of industry standards and other issues have given rise to many pain points and bottlenecks that hinder the development of the industry, making pre made food not taste good enough.

 

According to the reporter of Half Moon Talk who interviewed some food enterprises, the concept of prefabricated dishes in the industry is unclear, such as whether simple Rice-meat dumplings and ham belong to prefabricated dishes? In addition, the standards for pre made vegetable products are not uniform. Causing difficulties in ensuring dish quality, lack of detailed labeling, significant price differences, and discrepancies in graphics and text. For example, the prices on the same e-commerce platform range from tens of yuan to hundreds of yuan, with a large difference. At present, the entry threshold for the prefabricated food industry is relatively low, and many adopt a workshop style production and processing mode, making it difficult to ensure food safety and quality.

     
The observation of the agricultural industry also reveals that there are still multiple industry pain points in the prefabricated vegetable industry, such as long supply chains, difficult quality control, incomplete industry standards, insufficient variety of dishes, insufficient consumer awareness, and the inability to fully achieve prefabricated restoration of dishes. This also means that the market pattern has not yet taken shape, and there is still a long way for players from all walks of life to compete. The industry pain points are as follows:

 
1) Long supply chain and difficult quality control: Prefabricated vegetables involve many links such as raw material procurement, processing, cold chain preservation, sales, etc. If the cold chain is not in place at any link, food quality problems will arise;
2) Incomplete industry standards: Data shows that there are 69000 registered companies for pre made vegetables in China, but there are less than 3000 processing enterprises, and 70% of processing enterprises are relatively small in scale, which cannot meet the requirements of planned production and quality control;
3) The dishes are not rich enough, and a systematic research and development team is needed for dish development;

In response, industry insiders such as Xiao Liangdong, Chairman of Yuanfeng Haike, have suggested strengthening leading enterprises and increasing industry concentration. We should fully leverage the key role of agricultural leading enterprises in the layout of the entire prefabricated vegetable industry chain, and create a professional supply chain for prefabricated vegetables. Simultaneously strengthening research and development capabilities and brand building to enhance product competitiveness. Segmenting the track and widening the moat of enterprises

 

 

Prefabricated dishes belong to the competition track, but opportunities belong to the deep cultivators of the prefabricated dish track, especially those players who are good at segmenting categories and groups.

     Guohai Securities believes that, considering that the industry is currently in the early stage of rapid development, traditional frozen food enterprises are more likely to become national leaders and maximize the potential of individual products. Focusing on segmented categories, professional pre made vegetable enterprises can deeply cultivate the region and become small and beautiful enterprises.
Observation and research in the agricultural industry have found that although the current pre made vegetable market has a huge scale, the market pattern is extremely scattered. Compared to the market size of pre made dishes with billions of yuan, the annual sales scale of top pre made dish enterprises is only a few hundred million yuan, and the average scale of enterprises in the industry is about 15 million yuan.
In addition, the concept of prefabricated dishes is very broad and there are many categories, which also means that the terminal demand is diverse, and it is difficult for a single enterprise to meet so many needs.
"Precise positioning, finding suitable scenarios and markets, and seizing the high ground of the prefabricated food segment market are the business focus of prefabricated food enterprises, and also the key battle to widen the enterprise's moat," Xiao Liangdong added.
For example, Sanquan Food focuses on the Fried Rice category of "food and rice integration", Xianmei focuses on "aquatic prefabricated dishes", Huifa Food focuses on "cooked food plate", Yuanfeng Haike focuses on "abalone prefabricated dishes", helping urban white-collar consumers to provide high-quality abalone prefabricated dishes. 
Of course, segmenting the track is just the starting point, and innovation is the key for prefabricated food enterprises. Otherwise, it will be difficult for enterprises to build their own moat in the fierce market. 
Taking Yuanfeng Haike as an example:

 

Yuanfeng Haike is supported by the strong industrial, financial, and value chains of Fengyun Abalone Industry, one of the platform companies in the abalone industry chain, and Hongdong Fisheries. Adhering to the corporate vision of "bringing abalone to the people's dining table", it continuously deepens its cultivation in the abalone prefabricated vegetable market. In recent years, Yuanfeng Haike has made three major innovations in the field of prefabricated dishes, which are worth learning from for prefabricated dish enterprises.

 

 01
 Deep Digging Abalone Prefabricated Vegetable List

Make a single product deep and thorough, and there is a chance to win!Yuanfeng Abalone adheres to the principle of "pre made abalone dishes" and continuously cultivates its core competitiveness.For example, the "Abalone Prefabricated Vegetable Research and Innovation Center" was established.    

 

The Yuanfeng Abalone Prefabricated Vegetable Research and Innovation Center was established in May 2021. It has complete supporting facilities and equipment for the research and development, processing, testing, and experimentation of prefabricated vegetables, and can provide technical support and cooperative services for catering, food, and seasoning processing enterprises. The center has one hall, two rooms, and eight workstations. Among them, one hall is the cultural hall, and two rooms are the tasting room and the experience room; Eight workshops: raw material room, foaming room, prefabrication room, manufacturing room, packaging room, sample room, storage room, and experimental room. 

In addition, the center has established long-term cooperative relationships with industry associations and research institutes such as the China Food Industry Association, the China High Quality Agricultural Product Development Service Association, the School of Marine Food and Biotechnology at Jimei University, etc., providing cutting-edge information and technical support for new product research and development, and establishing new commercial relationships with excellent enterprises and advantageous products through cooperation models. The center currently has 4 senior food expert consultants, 3 product development and application engineers, and 3 quality control technicians, including 2 Chinese culinary masters. 

The center centers around the goal of becoming a leader in abalone pre made dishes, adhering to the vision of "bringing abalone to the dining table of the people", focusing on innovation and quality, carefully developing abalone pre made products, and allowing every consumer to "eat Shanghai banquet at home".

 

 

02
 Continuous efforts in product research and development innovation

 

The breakthrough point of prefabricated dishes is to focus on product research and development innovation around users, which is not only the competitiveness of enterprises but also the barrier to them. Starting from user satisfaction, Yuanfeng Haike distinguishes four levels: ready to eat, ready to eat, ready to enjoy, and ready to serve. Based on flavors such as original, salty, sour, spicy, and spicy, it has developed dozens of high-quality products in six major series, including classic series, original flavor series, banquet series, staple food series, soup series, and leisure series.

At the same time, Yuanfeng Haike also operates multiple well-known brands such as "Fengyun", "Baozhilian", "Baoxiaowan", "Baomimi", "Yibao Wanfu", and "Minxiaonan", meeting the needs and scenarios of different consumer groups through brand matrix. 

 

 

03
 Actively exploring supply chain innovation

 

Yuanfeng Haike, based on 25 years of experience in marine aquaculture and supported by the deep integration of industry, education, research and application, has full control of the whole chain of abalone production to ensure that every link of seedling raising, breeding, processing and sales is traced.

At the same time, Yuanfeng Haike also strives for innovation in processing end and processing technology, building front-end and back-end processing production lines to achieve green, environmental protection, efficiency, and intelligence; Meanwhile, throughout the entire assembly line, Yuanfeng Haike also utilized -196 ° liquid nitrogen ultra-low temperature preservation and reduction DSH technology, flavor control technology, microbial control technology, and vertical packaging technology. These technologies not only increase production capacity, but also enable frozen abalone products, dried abalone products, and deep processed abalone products to maintain their unique flavor and nutritional value as much as possible. In addition, on the sales side, Yuanfeng Haike has set up fresh abalone distribution centers in Lianjiang, Fujian and Rongcheng, Shandong, to transport fresh abalone to various parts of the country. At present, it has covered more than 50 first and second tier cities across the country, forming a sales network covering the whole country. This year, Yuanfeng Haike will also expand innovative channels such as short videos and live streaming, truly realizing the era of abalone consumption. 

Xiao Liangdong also stated that abalone pre made dishes belong to the innovation of pre made dishes. At the same time, Yuanfeng Haike will continue to increase product research and development to help ordinary Chinese families enjoy the feast of high-end abalone. This is Yuanfeng Haike's goal and original intention of entrepreneurship.

 

Brief summary

In Xiao Liangdong's view, developing regional specialty food products and penetrating segmented markets can not only activate more market consumption power, but also form advantageous industrial clusters in segmented fields, establish regional competitiveness, and drive local economic development.

Lianjiang County in Fujian Province is known as the "number one county for abalone", and the abalone industry is a characteristic industry of Lianjiang County.

 

Abalone pre made dishes, the future is promising! (Author: Liu Dengfeng, Special Observer for Agricultural Industry Observation)