Laiyang is renowned both domestically and internationally for its agricultural production, processing, and export, earning the title of China’s Green Food City. In April this year, the China Vegetable Marketing Association awarded Laiyang the title of “China’s Number One City for Pre-made Food.” On October 30, as part of the “Hemei Countryside, Treasure Yantai” media tour focusing on rural revitalization, journalists visited Laiyang to explore the Pre-made Food Industry Party Building Complex, Longda Food, and Chunxue Group, gaining insights into Laiyang’s approach to promoting rural revitalization and shared prosperity.
The first stop for the journalists in Laiyang was the Pre-made Food Industry Party Building Complex. As they entered, the prominent words “Hometown of Pre-made Food in China” greeted them. The exhibition hall showcased a wide variety of pre-made food products, including Kung Pao Chicken, Sour Soup Fatty Beef, Seafood Pizza, and Seafood Dumplings.
Pre-made food, also known as pre-prepared or ready-to-eat food, has gained popularity in recent years. Laiyang has a long history with pre-prepared foods. Since the 1980s, Laiyang enterprises, led by Longda Food, began exporting pre-prepared dishes to Japan. After over 30 years of development, Laiyang has established a comprehensive pre-made food industry system, including vegetables, livestock, poultry, seafood, and pastries, represented by enterprises such as Longda, Chunxue, and Tianfu.
Data provided by the Laiyang Agriculture Bureau shows that the pre-made food industry has engaged over 100,000 local farmers in various stages such as cultivation, processing, and transportation. This has increased farmers’ annual income by over 1.8 billion yuan, with an average income increase of nearly 20,000 yuan per person, carving out a rural revitalization path for Laiyang that is based on industrial prosperity, farmer income growth, and shared prosperity.
The second stop was Shandong Longda Food Co., Ltd. As a company with 25 years of experience in the food industry, Longda Food has garnered numerous accolades, including being recognized as a key leading enterprise in agricultural industrialization at the provincial level, among the top 100 industrial enterprises, top 100 pre-made food enterprises in China, top 100 private enterprises in Shandong, a gold member of the World Meat Organization, president of the Pan-Yangtze River Delta Supply Chain Alliance, president of the Shandong Healthy Meat Industry Association, and vice president of the Shandong Pre-made Food Industry Alliance.
According to Li Xinxin, Marketing Director of Longda Food Co., Ltd., the company’s revenue in 2022 reached 16.116 billion yuan, with pre-made food accounting for 1.314 billion yuan. “Our ‘131’ flagship products, including pork intestines, crispy pork, meatballs, sausages, and bacon, are our key expansion series.”
Currently, Longda Food has partnered with 1,000 well-known enterprises and is an annual excellent supplier for companies such as Tyson Foods and Yum China, and a long-term partner for organizations like Haidilao, Shanghai Pangu, Half-Day Yao, Master Kong, Carrefour, and RT-Mart. Li Xinxin stated that the company adheres to a “one body, two wings” development strategy, focusing on pre-made food as the core business, supported by slaughtering and breeding. The company aims to become a leading food enterprise in China, providing high-quality system solutions for healthy eating.
The final stop for the journalists in Laiyang was Chunxue Food Group. Founded in November 2012, the company specializes in the research, production, and sales of white-feather chicken meat products, along with meat chicken slaughtering and commercial meat chicken farming. Chunxue aims to become a leader in the segmented industry of chicken prepared foods in China.
At the Chunxue Food processing plant, chicken breast meat is transformed into popular chicken patties through processes such as battering, frying, metal detection, and freezing. “Take the chicken patty home and fry it in an air fryer—it’s delicious,” said Zheng Jun, Director and President of Chunxue Food Group Co., Ltd. “We began venturing into chicken pre-prepared foods in 2002 and implemented an industrial transformation and upgrading strategy in 2014, focusing on the domestic market for chicken pre-prepared foods. In 2022, the company achieved a revenue of 2.495 billion yuan, a 22.71% year-on-year increase.”
Zheng Jun explained that Chunxue Food has developed breeding bases through a “leading enterprise + base + farmers” model, establishing long-term cooperation with 214 farmers and providing over 60 million yuan in financial support, achieving an annual output of 80 million chickens and generating an additional 150 million yuan in annual income. “We collaborate with local farmers, providing loan guarantees or lending money to help them build chicken farms, ensuring quality through standardized breeding. Additionally, auxiliary ingredients for pre-made foods, such as green onions, ginger, and garlic, have boosted the income of some vegetable farmers. The labor required in production workshops has also created local employment opportunities.”
As the pre-made food industry accelerates, Laiyang has taken the lead. According to the Laiyang Agriculture Bureau, the city now hosts over 200 pre-made food enterprises. In 2022, the scale of the city’s food industry surpassed 80 billion yuan, with pre-made food production capacity increasing from 540,000 tons to 760,000 tons, and sales revenue doubling to over 10 billion yuan within a year.
