A plate of pre-made vegetables drives the development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries
On February 13, 2023, the "Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Comprehensively Promoting the Key Work of Rural Revitalization in 2023" was released, which clearly proposed to cultivate and develop the prepared vegetable industry. When it comes to cultivating new industries and new formats in rural areas, it is pointed out that the standardization and standardization level of clean vegetables, central kitchens and other industries should be improved, and the prefabricated vegetable industry should be cultivated and developed. This is the first time that prepared dishes have been written into the No. 1 document of the Central Committee, which has injected a booster into the development of the industry.
For the first time, prepared dishes were written into the No. 1 document of the Central Committee, which caused a lot of discussion in the industry. For a long time, there has been no uniform definition and classification standard for prepared dishes in the industry. In the view of many insiders, it is written into the No. 1 document of the Central Committee, and the future of the prepared vegetable industry will usher in a more healthy, rational and vigorous development. Since 2020, due to the epidemic and other factors, pre-made dishes have begun to come to the forefront and are well known by consumers. Due to consumers' lack of understanding of prepared foods, people's misunderstanding that "prepared dishes are overnight dishes" and "prepared dishes are pig and dog food" once set off heated discussions on the Internet, and caused a lot of controversy during the period.
Can pre-made dishes become a "vent"? How to ensure "eating healthy" and "eating delicious"? How to solve the industry problem of "chefs do not understand industrialization, food engineers do not understand cooking"? How to achieve integrated development from "field" to "consumer's table"?
With the favor of the market, policy support and capital entry, the prefabricated vegetable industry has "sung all the way", and all parties have spawned a trillion-level blue ocean. According to iMedia consulting data, the scale of China's prepared vegetable market will reach 419.6 billion yuan in 2022 and is expected to reach 1,072 billion yuan in 2026.
On the industrial track of prepared dishes, enterprises from agriculture, food processing, catering, e-commerce, logistics and other fields have gathered. According to enterprise investigation data, by the end of 2022, there were 64,000 existing prefabricated vegetable related enterprises in the mainland, and the number of related enterprise registrations has increased year by year in the past 10 years, of which 12,600 were added in 2020.
Like all industries in the early stages of development, the prepared vegetable industry is also facing many pain points, and it is still necessary to move forward step by step to achieve high-quality development. Under the policy dividend, in the next few years, more enterprises will devote themselves to the prepared vegetable industry, or there are two types of prepared vegetable enterprises that will develop better, one is chain catering or group catering enterprises, which expand to the front end of the industrial chain and build central kitchens, central factories and centralized procurement and distribution centers; The other category is the prefabricated food processing enterprises with a professional level for the production of specific products, which have been deeply engaged in a certain field for many years, and have a deeper understanding and experience in the varieties, quality, production technology and equipment performance, product quality and standards of raw materials.
"Pre-made dishes" is a convenient dish that can be directly eaten by heating or steaming after hygienic and scientific packaging, using modern standardized assembly operations, making preliminary preparations for the raw materials of the dishes, simplifying the production steps, and then heating or steaming and stir-frying in view of the complicated characteristics of the cooking procedures of family banquet dishes.
"Pre-made dishes" are basically molded dishes, which only need to be used in different ways, and after a little processing in the last level, they can become gourmet raw materials in different forms and characteristics. With the acceleration of the pace of life, "pre-made dishes" are becoming more and more popular. Prepared dishes are different from ordinary dishes, and semi-finished products can be simply heated and eaten. In recent years, with the continuous updating of dishes and prepared dishes, they have been respected by more consumers.
"Hotel pre-made dishes" are basically almost formed dishes, just need to use different cooking methods, after the last level of heating or stir-frying a little processing can become different forms, different taste characteristics of gourmet dishes. With the acceleration of the pace of life and the change of catering trends, "pre-made dishes" are becoming more and more popular among catering practitioners. Pre-made dishes are different from ordinary dishes, and semi-finished products can be simply heated and eaten. In recent years, with the continuous updating of dishes and prepared dishes, they have been respected by more consumers. The catering industry is developing rapidly, and in today's fast-paced people's pursuit of convenience, speed and efficiency. The hotel's pre-made dishes are in line with the current catering needs; Pre-made dishes solve many problems in wine restaurants, such as the search for ingredients and the development of dishes on the recipe. There is also a great simplification of complex cooking. Cost savings and efficiency improvements for F&B outlets.
More and more pre-made dishes enter restaurants and serve on the table, but because many businesses do not publicize, many consumers may not know that they are eating pre-made dishes. Prepared dishes can be divided into three categories: ready-to-eat ready-to-heat pre-made dishes, ready-to-cook pre-made dishes, and pre-made clean dishes.
The information between the links of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries involved in prefabricated dishes is smooth, and the terminal consumer demand can be timely fed back to the main bodies of the front and middle links of the industrial chain, and the main body accurately feedback to the consumer market by adjusting and transforming the work content and working methods in time, forming a development situation of mutual cooperation and coupling linkage between industries within the industry. It is necessary to combine market research in different regions and the nutritional and healthy needs of today's consumers, fully explore the characteristics of local specialty ingredients, medicinal and food dual-use, and develop more distinctive and differentiated prepared vegetable products.
The primary industry should formulate food standards and planting and breeding technical specifications suitable for the processing of prepared vegetables, the secondary industry should clarify the technical regulations and method standards for the harvesting, preservation and primary processing of prepared vegetable raw materials, and the tertiary industry needs to improve the product standards and service standards of the sub-categories of prepared vegetables.
Enterprises should build a comprehensive standard system, such as the varieties, origin, storage conditions of raw materials, etc. must be strictly controlled, and different prepared vegetable products should have different production processes and acceptance standards. Secondly, all links of the supply chain strive to achieve precise control, and gradually improve the traceability system from raw material processing to finished product sales.
A plate of prepared dishes links the consumer's table with the agricultural industry. As a new industry and new format, prepared vegetables are playing an active role in promoting the high-quality development of rural industries. In the next few years, more enterprises will devote themselves to the prepared vegetable industry, or there are two types of prepared vegetable enterprises that will develop better, one is chain catering or group catering enterprises, which expand to the front end of the industrial chain and build central kitchens, central factories and centralized procurement and distribution centers; The other category is the prefabricated food processing enterprises with a professional level for the production of specific products, which have been deeply engaged in a certain field for many years, and have a deeper understanding and experience in the varieties, quality, production technology and equipment performance, product quality and standards of raw materials.