Analysis on High-quality Development of Food Industry Cluster in Baoji City

Xifeng Group quality inspectors are testing product quality

From dairy products to Baijiu, from saozi noodles to rolled dough… Baoji’s food industry has been cultivated for many years, and the quantity and quality have been significantly improved. The ingredients produced in the field have been processed by modern equipment and branded packaging and promotion, becoming more convenient to promote to the outside world. Delicious food that can mobilize people’s emotions.

Fengxiang Baijiu Industrial Cluster was selected as the provincial SME characteristic industrial cluster in 2023. Xifeng Group and Shaanxi Heshi Dairy Group were identified as the main enterprises of the provincial manufacturing key industrial chain chain; Xifeng Group was awarded the provincial manufacturing single champion enterprise and selected as a provincial smart factory. In 2023, the company’s revenue exceeded 10 billion yuan.

These achievements are due to the city’s food industry cluster’s adherence to the innovation-driven development strategy. In recent years, our city has vigorously implemented the "15513" project of strengthening the industrial city, carried out in-depth three-product special projects, and continued to expand investment scale, rely on technological progress, and adhere to product innovation. The food industry has become one of the pillar industries of Baoji’s industrial economic development.

Control the source, improve quality and seek breakthroughs

The food industry industrial cluster is one of the five hundred billion-level industrial clusters in our city, and it is the "leader" of Baoji’s high-quality development. From 2022, our city will make comprehensive arrangements to promote the modernization and cluster development of the food industry. The Standing Committee of the Municipal People’s Congress will take the lead in grasping the general manager, implement the "group leader + chain leader" mechanism, establish a "special class + commissioner + expert" service model, and promote the implementation of the annual key list tasks.

The quality control of agricultural products is the primary link for the food industry to become better and stronger. In the process of upgrading the goat milk industry chain, attention is paid to the quality control of milk sources, which brings bright prospects for the high-quality development of the industry. Recently, when the reporter interviewed the standardized Thousand Dairy Goats farm in Cuijiatou Town, Qianyang County, he saw groups of dairy goats walking leisurely in the pen. The farm is also equipped with complete sports fields, milk stations, silage cellars, and feed workshops… The sheep produce high-quality goat milk in a comfortable environment.

Qianyang County is recognized by the industry as the world’s best breeding area for dairy goats. In recent years, the county has closely allied breeding sheep farms, leading enterprises, and farmers to build a whole industrial chain system that integrates dairy goat breeding, dairy goat breeding, goat milk processing and sales, and forage planting. Last year, the county supported Shaanxi Baotai Sheep Farm to introduce 190 high-quality breeding sheep, carry out breeding performance measurement and milk production performance measurement, and select high-quality dairy goats for breeding in the county; at the same time, it uniformly distributed breeding sheep to ordinary farms, and the government provided subsidies to improve the overall breeding rate of dairy goats in the county.

Longxian has always been at the forefront of the development of the national dairy goat industry. As a leading enterprise in the dairy industry, Heshi Dairy supports dairy goat farmers in the county to achieve large-scale and modern breeding, and provides them with free training in forage planting, introduction of milk goat breeds, scientific breeding, and new technologies for epidemic prevention and control. Through the implementation of the Million Dairy Goat Development Plan, Longxian has built a whole industry chain ecosystem from "one grass" to "one sheep" to a cup of "good goat milk", strengthening the basic position of milk sources.

Innovation leads transformation and upgrading to promote development

The new economic era of the food industry has arrived. In this situation, the traditional food industry production needs to be rearranged and combined, and new manufacturing and new models need to be used to adapt to market competition and meet the new needs of consumers.

In recent years, Xifeng wine has been continuously exploring in the production of intelligent and informatization, launching the "333" project and the 100,000-ton base wine project in the intelligent brewing process, introducing emerging technologies such as digitalization and intelligence, and empowering the traditional brewing process with "digital +" and "intelligent +" to improve the level of production automation, informatization and digitalization.

Wang Ningzheng, the planning manager of Xifeng Marketing Company, believes that the thick culture of Xifeng wine needs to be told in a trendy way at the moment. At present, Baijiu rejuvenation has become an industry proposition. Xifeng has launched a merchandise wine series and developed low-level tipsy products to meet the preferences of young consumers. At the same time, it pays attention to the cultivation of online emerging channel markets. Last year, Xifeng wine completed the construction of high-end red Xifeng product system and the iterative upgrade of the old green bottle series products. The market for main products and main brands such as 15-year and 6-year-old Xifeng wine, Huashan Lun Jian Xifeng wine, and national flower porcelain Xifeng wine has been further consolidated, and the Xifeng brand has been further enhanced.

The food processing enterprises in our city generally attach great importance to the innovation of production technology and actively use new products to empower. The reporter learned from the Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology that in 2023, our city organized and implemented 14 provincial-level key new product development projects for consumer goods, and actively developed special products such as Baijiu and Kiwi brandy. The products of 10 consumer goods enterprises such as Xifeng Liquor, Baixian Liquor Industry, and Heshi Dairy were successfully created as "Shaanxi Industrial Boutique", accounting for 15% of the city’s total. Our city increased support for technological transformation and upgrading. Last year, it organized and implemented 38 consumer goods industrial technological transformation projects, with an annual investment of 13.557 billion yuan, accounting for 48% of the city’s key technological transformation projects.

A number of key projects such as the special medical use goat milk powder project of Heshi Dairy Industry and the first phase of Liulin Liquor Industry Quality Improvement and Technical Reform Project were completed, and the construction of the Xifeng Liquor 100,000-ton base wine project was accelerated. 10 consumer goods enterprises, including Laoniu Flour, Taibaijiu Industry, Qinbao Animal Husbandry, Fufeng Bio, Xifeng Liquor, and Heshi Dairy, successfully established provincial enterprise technology centers, accounting for 15% of the city’s total. Four consumer goods enterprises, Xifeng Liquor, Qingdao Beer Baoji Company, Mengniu Dairy (Baoji) Company, and Nongfu Spring Shaanxi Taibai Mountain Beverage Company, were established as national green factories, accounting for 36% of the city’s total.　

Brand promotion takes multiple measures to expand the market simultaneously

Our city has formulated an industrial quality improvement and branding work plan, implemented a brand cultivation project, and taken multiple measures to help enterprises create brands and expand markets.

In Qishan, the "Hundred Cities and Thousand Stores" project of Sao Zi Noodles is in full swing. Local leading enterprises have opened 47 chain stores of Sao Zi Noodles and Rolled Noodles in Xi’an, Yan’an, Lanzhou and other places, and promoted the "One Bowl Noodles" series of products to enter airports, scenic spots, and high-speed rail stations; brand construction is gaining momentum, improving the "One Bowl Noodles" enterprise standard system in Qishan, establishing a directory of production enterprises, and strengthening intellectual property protection… Promote rural revitalization with industrial revitalization, and various supporting measures are coordinated to promote the development of "One Bowl Noodles" into a well-arranged chess game.

Last year, the domestic soda brand – Dayao invested in the beverage industry cluster project in Chencang District, building three sub-projects of an annual output of 500,000 tons of beverage intelligent factory, Yucai food packaging bottle production line, and Qinxing Ruiye bottle cap tray production line. This series of actions is considered to be Dayao’s brand expansion in the Shaanxi soda market. Professionals analyze that Dayao strengthens brand awareness. According to the principle of nearby supply, the future Baoji production base will expand its supply capacity and form a good market performance.

Up to now, 8 consumer goods enterprises including Xifeng Liquor, Qinbao Animal Husbandry, and Qingdao Beer Baoji Company have been established as provincial quality benchmarking enterprises, and 5 consumer goods enterprises including Heshi Dairy and Xianghe Flour have been established as provincial industrial brand cultivation demonstration enterprises, accounting for 53% and 42% of the city’s total, respectively. Since last year, our city has held 10 high-specification Xifeng Liquor promotion activities in various cities in the province, and Xifeng Liquor has signed a 220 million yuan purchase and sales contract with core distributors.

With the help of the new round of Internet wave, our city’s food companies will keep an eye on the needs of the new generation of consumers, focus on the core consumer group, tell a good brand story, polish product quality, and form a two-way consumption path. Let Baoji’s food industry cluster shine even more brightly. (Reporter, Wei Wei)