On January 15, 2022, the theme seminar of "Scientific and Technological Innovation Empowers the High-quality Development of the Food Industry" was held in Beijing, where experts and scholars from government-affiliated professional institutions, industry organizations, universities and research institutes gathered to discuss the transformation and upgrading of high-quality development of the food industry and technological innovation under the vision of "double carbon". As a corporate representative, Unilever attended the conference and shared its practices and experiences in the ice cream industry.
Experts and scholars participated in the theme seminar of "Scientific and Technological Innovation Empowers the High-quality Development of the Food Industry".
As one of the world's largest ice cream producers, Unilever has one of the world's leading ice cream companies and Lu Xue. Since setting up its factory in China in 1994, Helu Xue has been breathing with the Chinese market and growing together. At present, China has become the world's largest consumer market for the Cute Duo and Menglong brands under Helu Xue.
Unilever Taicang Food Production Base (renderings).
Under the general trend of intelligent manufacturing and the vision of "double carbon", Unilever has introduced high-tech new technologies and installed the world's advanced production lines to empower ice cream production and innovation with technology. In September 2021, Unilever Taicang Food Production Site was selected as a world-class "Lighthouse Factory", the second "Lighthouse Factory" awarded by Unilever in China after the Hefei Integrated Production Base, and the first "Lighthouse Factory" in the global ice cream industry.
In the seminar on "Technological Innovation Empowers High-quality Development of the Food Industry", we invited Mr. Xu Yushu, Vice President of Unilever Food and Ice Cream Business Unit, to introduce the seminar and share the significance of Unilever's "Lighthouse Factory" in helping the high-quality development of the ice cream industry.
Yushu Xu (Vice President, Unilever Food and Ice Cream Division)
Author: What is the background of the seminar on the high-quality development of the food industry enabled by scientific and technological innovation? Can you introduce the main theme and significance of this forum?
Xu Yushu: In 2022, all walks of life in the country are planning the future dual-cycle development path with the general tone of "seeking progress in stability". As a pillar industry of the national economy and a basic industry that guarantees people's livelihood and stable employment, the food industry plays an important role in promoting the implementation of the strategy of manufacturing power and promoting "Healthy China". With this in mind, we held this workshop.
I particularly agree with Academician Chen Junshi, researcher and general counsel of the National Food Safety Risk Assessment Center, who pointed out that everyone has the right and ability to enjoy safe, nutritious and healthy food. An important way to achieve this ambitious goal is to rely on science and innovation. As a branch of the food industry, the ice cream industry should look at the future development from such a height, intelligent innovation, health and sustainability are the top priorities and key strategies. Through this seminar, we hope to provide reference and constructive suggestions for the development direction and strategy of The next stage of China's food industry, especially the ice cream industry.
Author: What are the opportunities and challenges for the high-quality development of China's ice cream industry in the future?
Xu Yushu: The development of the ice cream industry is also facing many challenges, and the ice cream category accounts for a relatively low proportion of the overall food industry, and there is still a huge room for development. I think that ice cream, as a low-temperature product, often has higher requirements for basic cold chain facilities, channels, logistics, etc., so technological innovation and digital intelligent production are crucial to the development of the ice cream industry.
In addition, with the continuous improvement of consumers' requirements for product quality, how to strengthen the contact point with consumers and further meet, create and tap the demand is a challenge faced by all ice cream brands. Insulation packaging is more consumable than ordinary food packaging, which also poses certain challenges to environmental protection.
Author: What is the importance of the ice cream market to China's food industry?
Xu Yushu: Driven by the new development pattern of "double circulation", new retail and new consumption trends have developed rapidly, and the ice cream industry has developed beyond the norm in the Chinese market in recent years, diversifying forward, and the market scale has grown rapidly. The epidemic has affected the production and supply of global food, but the ice cream industry as a whole has maintained a steady rise, which is a trend manifestation of ice cream becoming a popular consumer. The production and supply of ice cream products require higher standards and stricter implementation norms than room temperature foods, and these high requirements for food production and supply technology provide a demonstration for the high-quality development of the food industry. The consumption trend of self-congratulation is becoming more and more apparent, Chinese consumers are more and more seeking a joyful experience in consumption, people's demand for food consumption is becoming more and more diversified, based on food safety, people pursue safe, healthy, and taste-rich foods, and the taste update of the ice cream market provides certain indications for the future development of the food industry.
Author: How can Unilever empower the high-quality development of ice cream through technological innovation?
Xu Yushu: Unilever has the world's first exclusive food and ice cream industry lighthouse factory in Taicang, which embodies the extremely advanced science and technology of the global ice cream industry, and the construction and production of taicang "lighthouse factory" contributes to the high-quality development of the Chinese market and even the world ice cream market, which is also our emphasis and long-term commitment to the Chinese market. With artificial intelligence models, consumer-oriented digital innovation tools, flexible production lines, fully automated non-lighting factories and end-to-end value chains, Unilever Taicang Lighthouse Factory has created a guiding success story for the development of smart manufacturing.
Combining world-class ice cream production capabilities with China's digital intelligence technology, Unilever Taicang Food Production Base will be the world's first ice cream factory that integrates intelligence and flexibility. With the artificial intelligence model of Taicang "Lighthouse Factory", we can accurately predict the market and consumer demand, doubling the accuracy of forecasting, and improving forecasting efficiency from 2 days to 2 hours; consumer-oriented digital innovation tools have increased innovation efficiency from 12 months to 3 months. Through the continuous deepening of our layout in the Yangtze River Delta region, we will make full use of the integration resources of the upstream and downstream of the supply chain to bring high-quality, safe and innovative delicious ice cream to Chinese consumers.
Of particular note is the world's first Dream Dragon ice cream flexible production line. Today, we are seeing chinese consumers' demand for ice cream products becoming more and more personalized, such as consumers wanting a box of Menglong products to include more diverse flavor choices. In order to cater to this trend and further enhance production flexibility, we have customized and developed a Menglong ice cream product line that can produce a variety of flavors at the same time, which can achieve rapid switching, improve customized production efficiency, intelligently, efficiently and flexibly meet diverse channel needs and consumer customization, realize comprehensive digitalization and automation upgrades, more complex process technology, more stringent health and safety standards, and truly achieve a two-way balance between intelligence and flexibility.
Author: Can you talk about the significance of the lighthouse factory for China's food industry?
Xu Yushu: "Lighthouse Factory", jointly selected by the World Economic Forum and McKinsey & Company, is one of the most influential selections in the field of advanced manufacturing in the world, with the intention of selecting companies that have achieved success in the application and integration of cutting-edge technologies in the fourth industrial revolution, and shaping a guiding success model for the future development of intelligent manufacturing.
In September 2021, Unilever Taicang Food Production Site was selected as the world's first exclusive lighthouse factory for the food and ice cream industry, which also coincided with the 14th Five-Year Plan and the 2035 Vision Outline, which is the certification of high-end quality in the field of consumer goods. After the official production, the ice cream products produced by the Taicang factory will bring the same high-quality taste enjoyment to consumers at home and abroad. Unilever and Luxue Taicang "Lighthouse Factory" will use solar green electricity on a large scale in the operation process, make full use of renewable energy sources such as local waste incineration steam for green energy substitution, and effectively implement circular economy initiatives, which are expected to reduce carbon emissions by 83% and reduce energy and water consumption by 14%. At the same time, it is expected to become carbon neutral within the next two years, directly contributing to Unilever's goal of achieving zero emissions by 2030.
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