Guangdong’s pre-prepared food industry eyes international market

Fiery hot pot, melt-in-your-mouth sauerkraut fish, fresh seafood...Do you desire to have a taste of authentic Chinese food, but have to put your travel plan in cold storage due to the epidemic? Don't worry, Chinese specialties and especially those from Guangdong, will come right up to you very soon in the form of pre-prepared food.

Pre-prepared food refers to finished or semi-finished dishes that are prepared in a factory and preserved by freezing or vacuum packaging after pre-processing. Boasting abundant seafood resources, mature agriculture with a long history and robust productivity, Guangdong has developed a fast-growing pre-prepared food industry covering famous cuisines from deep-fried snapper in sweet and sour sauce, to steamed bass.

Hoping to share locally-made pre-prepared delicacies with the whole world in such hard times, Guangdong is to organize a series of pre-prepared food tasting activities targeting global consumers both inside and outside China soon. And to support that, more export-oriented enterprises domestically as well as processing bases overseas are to be built up.

Foreign expats tasted pre-prepared food in Guangdong's Zhanjiang city in January, 2022. (Photo: Zhang Qida)

Meanwhile, expecting more exchanges with global peers, the province is set to get engaged deeper in more international dialogue platforms such as China-Pacific Island Countries Forum on Fisheries Cooperation and Development, establishing international partnership especially in terms of raw material purchases.

The measures above that aim to provide international consumers with easier access to Guangdong's pre-prepared food cuisines are announced by the provincial government in a work plan released last Friday on promoting the high-development of related pre-prepared food industry.

"The goal of developing a pre-prepared food industry is to maximize agricultural products' value, helping farmers to earn higher income," according to Gao Qingying, deputy director-general of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Guangdong Province.

The work plan also includes a package of measures to boost the industry’s standardized, large-scale and professional production, with the purpose of bring safer, healthier and more delicious food to consumers in a convenient way.

In the next phase, the province will focus on establishing a whole-chain standard system for quality and safety supervision. Intelligent stations will be set up in the respective fields for raw material detection sourcing.

Author | Abby

Editor | Wing, Nan, Will, Jerry