Recently, the Office of the Leading Group for the Construction of a Strong Manufacturing Province in Guangdong Province announced the list of "chain master" enterprises in the key industrial chain of the province's strategic industrial clusters, and Haitian Condiment Food Co., Ltd., located in Foshan, was selected as the "chain master" enterprise of the condiment industry chain.
On November 30, Chen Junyang, vice president of engineering equipment of Haitian Flavor, was interviewed by a reporter from Nandu, reviewing the company's development history and talking about digital transformation, food safety and the ESG development strategy that the company is focusing on.
Talk about the industry
Play a benchmarking role to drive upstream and downstream transformation and upgrading
Nandu: Haitian's digital transformation started early, how to summarize the "Haitian practice" and "Haitian experience" in this process?
Chen Junyang: When Haitian was first listed in 2014, its revenue was less than 10 billion yuan, and by last year it had grown to 25.6 billion yuan. I have worked at Haitian for 24 years, and I can deeply feel that this company has "not forgotten its original intention" and focused on its own field.
Haitian has always adhered to the two-way integration of traditional craftsmanship and modern technology: "Persistence in inheritance, innovation in perseverance." Looking back on the development history, Haitian upgraded the production line fully automatically around 2000, in 2008, it carried out the integration of informatization and automation, and applied ERP and other technologies, and then in 2016, Haitian fully implemented digital and intelligent upgrades, using advanced information technology and AI technology to make the traditional manufacturing industry leap.
It can be said that whenever science and technology are iteratively upgraded, Haitian will respond and apply it quickly, and it is this "timely" or even "advanced" that has brought a certain impetus to Haitian's development.
Nandu: Why do we continue to carry out digital and intelligent transformation and upgrading, and where is the driving force?
Chen Junyang: For enterprises, the root of transformation and upgrading is to constantly respond to market changes and better meet consumer needs. In the modern manufacturing system, Haitian adheres to the traditional process of sun-brewing and drying, and adheres to the "familiar taste", but this does not mean simply inheriting the production mode of the past.
For example, in the past, the old craftsmen mainly relied on the accumulation of experience such as looking, smelling, touching, and tasting, but with the expansion of the market scale and the development of modern technology, if they only copied the original production model, they would affect the product standards because of subjective judgment, and could not meet the huge demand of social consumption at a reasonable cost.
In this case, we took the initiative to carry out digital and intelligent upgrades, using a large number of online detection technologies in the production process, collecting and analyzing a large amount of data through machines, supplemented by the judgment of old craftsmen to continuously verify and correct, and finally digitizing and standardizing the "empirical standards" to improve efficiency and ensure consistent quality.
Haitian bottling workshop located in Gaoming District, Foshan. Source: Haitian Flavor.
Nandu: How do you view the development of Foshan's food and beverage industry, and what role does Haitian play in it?
Chen Junyang: Food manufacturing in Foshan and even the whole country seems to be only a more traditional industry, but we have always understood it as a "people's livelihood enterprise", and the core essence of the development of any enterprise in the industry is to serve people's livelihood consumption through modern technology and achieve social and economic benefits.
As a benchmark enterprise in the field of condiments, I think Haitian has played a leading role in the industry. In fact, in the whole process of digital and intelligent upgrading, Haitian is by no means "alone", but also pays attention to the development of the entire upstream and downstream industrial chain, and recently we have been rated as the "chain master enterprise" of the condiment industry in Guangdong Province, because our information exchange has driven the technological innovation and strict control of standards of a number of related enterprises such as raw materials, packaging material suppliers and logistics providers, so that a number of upstream and downstream enterprises have also spontaneously gathered in Foshan because of our existence, driving the development of the entire industrial chain.
Talk about the product
Regard food safety as life and manage it with high standards and refinement
Nandu: For the food and condiment industry, people are most concerned about health, how does Haitian use scientific and technological innovation to ensure product quality, what are the visible examples?
Chen Junyang: As a food company, we regard food safety as our life, and we will never relax on the safety of our products. Haitian has set itself higher than the national standard of index requirements, from the source materials to product production to the consumer market, our products have passed a total of 494 inspections, involving more than 2,000 index tests, any of which are the whole process of follow-up and traceability.
It is no exaggeration to say that because of the mature AI scanning technology, every soybean on the production line has been tested and screened, and the soybeans that are slightly substandard in terms of color and appearance will be eliminated.
Haitian has the largest brewing and drying field in the industry, specializing in researching and cultivating the most suitable environment for soy sauce fermentation, such as its temperature, oxygen content, etc., the slope thickness of the drying glass room has been accurately calculated, and we will not deliberately advertise how many days of sunbathing, because the specific time varies according to climate and other factors, and the duration is determined completely based on the performance of the finished product.
Haitian has built an intelligent "sunshine glass house" for soy sauce drying.
Nandu: I've heard the saying that in Haitian's soy sauce factory, it's impossible to directly touch a drop of soy sauce, what's going on?
Chen Junyang: This statement is not an exaggeration, the products are transported through fully sealed pipelines from drying to filling to testing, and the hygiene standards reach the level of dairy factories, and the whole process is automated, without human contact.
Nandu: In addition to the clean and closed production, the strain is also an important factor affecting the flavor of soy sauce, it can be called the "chip" of the condiment industry, so how does the "Haitian fungus" perform?
Chen Junyang: Haitian was formerly known as the ancient sauce garden of the Qing Dynasty, and our strains have been continued and upgraded 300 years ago, and now they have developed to dozens of generations. The quality of the strains directly determines the quality of soy sauce, and our strains have been optimized and improved in terms of output efficiency and flavor. To sum up, "Haitian Mushroom" has two core advantages, one is particularly stable, the stable Haitian Mushroom can support large-scale production, to ensure the stability of the quality of each batch of products, and the other is to have a high transformation efficiency, through which it can convert as many nutrients in soybeans and wheat as possible into the product. It can be said that the research on Haitian strains has injected the soul of "color, aroma, taste and body" into Haitian soy sauce, forming the unique taste of Haitian, which is also an important secret for Haitian soy sauce to maintain its leading position in the market. It also leads the way in the direction of the industry.
Nandu: At present, the industry is also facing certain challenges, such as rising raw material prices, how does Haitian respond?
Chen Junyang: In the past, there have indeed been some environmental changes, such as the sharp increase in the price of soybean raw materials and packaging materials, but in fact, we have not raised the price of consumer terminals too much, and the solution is to "turn the blade inward", and continue to use more advanced technology to improve production efficiency and reduce the loss of raw materials. Haitian has won the competitiveness of the enterprise in this process of refined management, and I think it also reflects the responsibility of a large enterprise. Insisting on brewing with whole soybeans is also Haitian's insistence on the public welfare of ancient brewing. Therefore, no matter how the price of soybeans rises, we will continue to use it and will not use other cheap alternative raw materials.
Talk about ESG construction
We must make every effort to achieve sustainable corporate development
Nandu: How to understand ESG and why does Haitian pay attention to ESG construction?
Chen Junyang: ESG is a term that major enterprises have been paying more attention to recently, and it is obvious that it is in line with the national development strategy, in line with the requirements of ecological civilization construction, and is also conducive to the sustainable development of enterprises.
Looking back, we have been promoting corporate construction in accordance with ESG standards. Now, we have made it clearer that ESG should be one of the important strategies for corporate development, and we will spare no effort to invest in it from social responsibility to environmental ecology.
Source: Haitian Flavor.
Nandu: In terms of ESG practice, what case does Haitian have to share?
For example, in the application of packaging materials, we closely follow the green ecological requirements in ESG to promote. Since 2004, it has taken the lead in using PET material instead of glass bottle packaging, and food-grade PET material is lighter, more environmentally friendly, recyclable, and has great environmental significance.
In addition, we have reduced the weight of PET, glass, and carton packaging to reduce its weight while maintaining durability and durability, thereby saving energy and reducing emissions. In 2022, we reduced the amount of glass used by 110,000 tons through measures such as lightweight packaging, and about 300 million to 400 million glass bottles per year.
In addition, some by-products of the production process, such as the okara waste after brewing, will be recycled and reused for feed, and in the process of pipe cleaning, we also carefully calculate the water flow rate and cleaning frequency, etc., to fulfill the mission of water conservation in the fine plan.
Nandu: So, what is Haitian's next layout in terms of ESG construction?
Chen Junyang: There is still a lot that we can do in ESG construction. For example, in terms of social responsibility, we hope to promote rural revitalization through agricultural planting management and agricultural product order demand in the future, dig out more agricultural planting bases with better quality, and better help farmers and benefit farmers, and in low-carbon and green development, we can also continuously reduce energy consumption and emission levels, and realize recycling and reuse through modern technology.
Nandu: Looking at the whole industry, what do you think is the significance of enterprises adhering to ESG construction?
Chen Junyang: I think it is necessary to take ESG as the foundation of the sustainable development of the food condiment industry, and with the support of modern technology, the traditional industry still has a lot of room for improvement in raw material utilization, low-carbon production, social responsibility, etc., and also calls on the entire condiment industry to pay attention to and promote ESG construction.
Nandu: Foshan is building a "Yisha You" business environment service system, what kind of thoughts and suggestions do you have for the government and enterprises to work together to promote the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry?
Chen Junyang: Foshan is a big manufacturing city, and the government has also provided great support for the development of manufacturing enterprises, such as the launch of the "Yisha You" policy, which has helped many enterprises solve problems. The fundamental subject of the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry is still in the enterprise, and the government should play a guiding role more through policies.
Written by: Nandu reporter Sun Zhenling Photographer: Zheng Junbin