China's Food Internet of Things: Using the Internet to Open a New Model
In this day and age, the rapid development of the Internet of Things and Internet technology is reshaping the operating model of various industries. As the world's most populous country, China's food industry faces enormous challenges in ensuring food safety, improving supply chain efficiency and achieving sustainable development. In order to meet these challenges, the Chinese government and enterprises are actively using the Internet of Things and Internet technology to open a new model for the food industry.
Government policy support
The Chinese government attaches great importance to the application of the Internet of Things in agriculture and food, and has issued a series of supporting policies. In 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments jointly issued the "Three-Year Action Plan for the Construction of New Infrastructure for the Internet of Things (2021-2023)", which clearly proposes to accelerate the construction of agricultural Internet of Things infrastructure and promote the application and innovation of agricultural Internet of Things. The government also encourages enterprises to actively apply IoT technology to improve production efficiency and product quality.
In order to implement these policies, local governments have taken action. For example, Henan Province has issued the "Three-Year Action Plan for the Development of the Internet of Things in Henan Province (2022-2024)", proposing that by 2024, the number of Internet of Things terminal connections in the province will reach 120 million, covering key areas such as agriculture, industry, and logistics. These policies have laid a solid foundation for the development of the Internet of Things in China's food.
Agricultural IoT applications
In the field of agriculture, the application of IoT technology is changing the traditional production model. The pig industry is a typical case. In 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, together with multiple departments, jointly launched the country's first "pig digital supervision platform" and "pig quarantine blockchain electronic signature" system, realizing the digital supervision of the whole process of pig origin quarantine, transportation quarantine and pre-slaughter quarantine. This system uses Internet of Things technology to collect data such as pig identity, health, and transportation, and ensures the authenticity and non-tampering of the data through blockchain technology, so as to effectively ensure pork food safety.
In addition to animal husbandry, IoT technology is also widely used in the cropping industry. More and more farms have begun to adopt the "water and fertilizer integration" automatic irrigation system, which uses Internet of Things technology to monitor soil moisture, temperature and other data in real time, and automatically controls irrigation and fertilization according to crop growth needs, realizing ecological recycling and greatly improving the efficiency of water resources and fertilizers.
In order to support IoT applications in rural areas, China is accelerating the construction of 5G base stations. According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, by the end of 2023, more than 1.8 million 5G base stations had been opened in China, covering 98% of towns and villages. The high speed, low latency, and large connectivity characteristics of 5G networks provide solid infrastructure support for agricultural IoT applications.
A new model for the food supply chain
In addition to production, the Internet of Things and Internet technologies are also reshaping the food supply chain and retail model. The traditional food supply chain is inefficient and wasteful, and the emerging "fresh e-commerce + cold chain home delivery" model can effectively solve this problem.
In this model, consumers place orders through e-commerce platforms, and merchants immediately allocate goods from nearby fresh food distribution centers, and use cold chain logistics to deliver fresh ingredients to consumers' homes. Throughout the process, IoT technology can monitor the temperature and transportation time of ingredients in real time to ensure food freshness and safety.
Some large catering groups are also exploring a new model of "central kitchen + cold chain distribution of ingredients". In this model, the ingredients are transported directly from the farm to the central kitchen for processing, and then distributed to chain stores through cold chain logistics, reducing intermediate links and improving efficiency. IoT technology plays a key role in this process, enabling food traceability from start to finish.
These new models not only improve supply chain efficiency, but also reduce waste and contribute to sustainable growth. They also bring consumers a new experience of "cloud shopping", breaking the restrictions of time and geography.
IIoT applications
In food processing and manufacturing, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence technology are also playing an increasingly important role. Some large food companies have begun to use these technologies to achieve intelligent design and collaborative office, which has significantly improved work efficiency.
Taking a well-known food company as an example, the company has established an intelligent design platform based on the Internet of Things to integrate product design, process design, mold design and other links into one system to achieve design collaboration and data sharing. Engineers only need to input product parameters on the platform, and the system can automatically generate the corresponding design scheme, which greatly shortens the design cycle.
The company also uses artificial intelligence technology to conduct historical design data to discover potential design rules and optimization space, and provide reference for future design. This intelligent design model not only improves efficiency, but also contributes to product innovation and quality control.
Market outlook
With the continuous development of the Internet of Things and Internet technology, China's food Internet of Things market has broad prospects. It is predicted that by 2027, China's IoT market will rank among the world's top spending, with a compound annual growth rate of 14.7%. Areas such as hardware, services, and data analytics software will be the main growth drivers.
This rapid growth is mainly due to the strong support of government policies and the active application of new technologies by enterprises. With the full coverage of 5G networks and the continuous maturity of artificial intelligence technology, the application of IoT in the food industry will be more extensive and deeper.
China is using the Internet of Things (IoT) and internet technologies to unlock new production, supply and retail models in the food industry to improve food safety, efficiency and sustainability. From farm to fork, IoT technology is reshaping the entire food supply chain.
In the production process, the Internet of Things technology has realized the digital supervision of pigs and the intelligent irrigation of farms, ensuring the safety of food sources. In the supply chain and retail links, emerging models such as "fresh e-commerce + cold chain distribution" and "central kitchen + food distribution" have improved efficiency and reduced waste. In the process of manufacturing, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence technologies have improved design efficiency and product innovation capabilities.