Yantai to further foster pre-made food industry

Yantai in East China's Shandong province is looking to further develop its pre-made food industry and help expand the global reach of Chinese cuisine.

Among the efforts it has taken is organizing a pre-made food industrial development conference in Yantai's Huang-Bohai New Area on Sept 9. Two hundred people, including industry experts and representatives from associations and companies, took part in the conference.

Yantai was given the title of "the capital of Chinese food standardization" by the China Pre-made Food Alliance at the conference, where seven projects aimed at promoting the development of the city's pre-made food industry around the world were signed.

"Yantai is the 'capital of Lu cuisine' and the Huang-Bohai New Area is also the 'hometown of Lu cuisine'. Yantai is rich in marine resources and has a strong industrial foundation and a comprehensive transportation network, all of which are significant advantages in developing Chinese pre-made food and helping them go global," said Peng Nanfeng, executive secretary-general of the alliance.

Wang Yanhua, deputy director of the China Foreign Trade Center of the Ministry of Commerce, said that Yantai, which is one of the prefecture-level cities with the strongest competitiveness in international trade, is home to a large number of pre-made food brands. Boasting advantages brought by comprehensive supporting services such as logistics, warehousing, packaging, e-commerce and finance, Yantai is able to help foster more pre-made food brands in the country, he noted.

Yantai is currently using the pre-made food industry to lead the transformation and upgrading of the green food industry, and has implemented plans to boost the development of the industry. To date, it has formed a pre-made food industry cluster that integrates fruit, aquatic products, meat products and instant food.

In 2022, the revenue of the pre-made food industry in the city totaled 19.84 billion yuan ($2.72 billion).