Rice noodles’ Mr Big
The turnaround story of a rice noodle mill in Jiangxi province is one of innovative craftsmanship transforming the traditional staple against the background of the nation’s reform and opening-up, reports Dara Wang.
ter when she was tasked to join the research and development process of rice noodles. She eventually took up the offer and had to send her daughter to her parents’ home in nearby Ruijin county under a demanding work schedule. Guo’s daughter did not live with her until she was in Grade 3 at primary school. This was Guo’s greatest regret.
Efforts finally paid off. The factory became one of China’s first chewy rice-noodle producers. All it needed was orders.
From overseas to domestic
In 1992, the factory took its new formula rice noodles to a food expo in Hainan province. They took a photo of a single rice noodle holding a 2,300-gram weight. A bundle of about 20 strings of rice noodles was enough to sustain the weight of a person weighing 48 kg. The photo attracted the attention of a Jiangxi-based company specializing in the import and export of cereals and oils. The company introduced the factory to China Resources in Hong Kong, which is now a Fortune Global 500 enterprise.
Two months later, the mill had its first order from Canada — 100 boxes of rice noodles, 2.4 tons. It took the factory nearly half a month to complete the order. They did not have a logo or packaging so they opted to use China Resources’, and the company has stuck with that logo since.
The order came with a historical blessing, owing to the socialist market economy introduced the same year as part of the nation’s reform and opening-up policy launched by then paramount leader Deng Xiaoping in 1978.
A series of economic reforms aimed at attracting foreign investment followed, resulting in China achieving average economic growth of 9.7 percent annually from 1978 to 2016.
The days of food shortages were still indelibly imprinted in the thoughts of people back then. Domestic purchasing power was limited. A 24-kg box of rice noodles produced by Guo’s factory, priced at HK$180, was beyond the means of most people on the Chinese mainland back then.
The company steered clear of the mainland market for more than a decade until 2003, when it established its market overseas. As general living standards on the mainland improved, prices were no longer a deterrent.
Today, the mainland market takes up the largest share of Jiangxi Wufeng’s sales volume. Last year, the company produced 30,000 tons of rice noodles, of which 55 percent was sold on the mainland (mainly in key metropolitan areas like Beijing and Shanghai), while the rest was sold overseas.
To stay competitive, Jiangxi Wufeng started an online store on Tmall.com — China’s largest business-to-consumer online retail platform run by Alibaba Group — in 2014. But, about four years later, sales remained sluggish due to the low recognition of the rice noodles from Jiangxi, says Guo.
“To perform better in the mainland retail market, we need more branding awareness and recognition,” she argues.
Many rice-noodle producers in Jiangxi have the same problem — the province does not have an established reputation for high-quality rice noodles amid stiff competition from Yunnan province and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, whose reputations are well established.
Speak for Jiangxi
According to the Jiangxi rice noodle association, comprising nearly 100 rice-noodle producers, Jiangxi exported 30,000 tons of its signature straight-cut rice noodles last year. This accounts for over 60 percent of the volume of the nation’s straightcut rice noodle exports, ranking first among all provinces or regions. However, few in China know that those rice noodles are from Jiangxi, said Yang Xiaolin, secretary of the association.
To promote brand awareness, the association applied for a collective trademark which was approved in March this year. It will establish a set of standards, covering production exceeding national standards, annual sales volume and brand reputation. Members of the association adhering to the standards will be allowed to use the group’s trademark.
Yang hopes the trademark will strengthen trust among consumers. “We would like consumers to know that rice noodles with this collective trademark are safe and reliable,” he said. “Those of poor quality will be gradually weeded out.”
Guo is currently investing over 2 million yuan to study fully automated production, and expects Jiangxi Wufeng’s annual production capacity to reach 70,000 tons by 2020.
It’s beyond her imagination that after three decades, the company could reach its level of success today, or that she would one day be developing innovative plans for the ricenoodle business.
The company, which now employs 856 people earning 3,500 yuan monthly, is increasing its production scale and developing its e-commerce to provide some 400 new jobs over the next two years.
“I hope that, one day, Jiangxi’s rice noodles will be easy to get and become famous, just like instant noodles,” says Guo.
In the near future, she hopes the first thing that comes to mind when people mention Jiangxi will no longer be poverty, but famous chewy rice noodles.