An aerial view of the Xinghua Economic Development Zone [Photo provided to etaizhou.gov.cn]
The Xinghua Economic Development Zone – located in the county-level city of Xinghua in East China's Jiangsu province – is a dynamic place that is also on the move.
It has spared no effort in advancing the expansion and development of its organic and health foods sector, one of Xinghua's three pillar industries. It's aim is to facilitate its continued growth as a landmark industry and to help ensure it becomes a production hub for China's health foods industry.
With representative enterprises – like the Anjoy Food Group, the Wudeli Flour Group, Kerisom Food Enterprises (Jiangsu) Ltd and Ramen Talk – the zone has formed a "3+1" health food system. The "3" refers to the complex seasoning, functional foods and pre-prepared dish industries, while the "1" refers to the support industry related to health foods.
With the focus on hot pot seasoning and Chinese-style complex seasoning, the zone has worked to create a complex seasoning industry supply chain and speed up the construction of an international condiments industry cluster. Plans are for the cluster, covering an area of 8 square kilometers, to have a total of 1 million square meters of production plants. A total of 10 plants in the Area A have started operating and these are expected to boost Xinghua's influence in the condiments industry, with support from leading enterprises including Tohkin Group and Teweinong Food Co.
The zone will increase investment in the cluster to build Area B, which will cover 153.2 mu (10.21 hectares) and include 12 plants, one multi-functional building and other support facilities, in a bid to attract quality health food projects.
The zone has established the Jiangsu Xinghua Condiments Association and held the Xinghua health food and condiments industry development conference for four years, to galvanize its growth.
The Xinghau Economic Development Zone also has high expectations for its functional food products. It is pushing hard to establish a comprehensive functional food industry supply chain and prioritize the development of functional food products – such as health food for seniors and those with specific needs, formula food for specific medical purposes and sports nutrition food. The zone aims to construct a 7 sq km cluster for the functional food industry to satisfy new demand from consumers, develop innovative products for different groups of people and optimize product structures.
Leveraging its rich local agricultural products and fisheries resources, the zone is also combining the resources of raw materials suppliers, food processers, livestreamed marketing and those of storage and logistics enterprises. The goal is to nurture a pre-prepared dishes industry that features the integrated development of raw materials, their processing and sales.
Research and service platforms are now located in Xinghua to support the development of its local healthy foods cluster. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
What's more, the zone has joined hands with universities and research institutes to study the industrial production technologies of pre-prepared dishes.
Moreover, the zone's authority is facilitating cooperation between condiments producers and food companies to develop complex seasoning products for pre-prepared products mass production, focusing on some classic cuisine styles.
Concentrating on the development of standard products for restaurants and tailored-made pre-prepared dishes for families, the zone is moving to build a key production cluster in East China and to highlight Xinghua's pre-prepared products.
Xinghua Economic Development Zone spares no effort in advancing the expansion and development of its organic and health foods sector. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]