Food in all directions, but a bowl of fireworks in the world.
It was autumn and winter, and it was the season when Hubei lotus root was on the market. In the hearts of many Hubei people, no matter where they are, a bowl of hot and fragrant lotus root soup is the taste of the hometown that makes people dream. The province of a thousand lakes, the land of fish and rice. Relying on the unique natural conditions, Hubei is committed to the improvement and cultivation of lotus root varieties, and is market-oriented, so that Hubei lotus root is more and more fragrant.
In addition to lotus root soup, lotus root clips, lotus root balls and other dishes, under the development and promotion of BESTORE and other enterprises, snacks with lotus root as raw materials have been selling well in recent years. In 2022 alone, BESTORE purchased about 1,200 tons of lotus root from Jingzhou, Hubei Province, and sold more than 3.74 million packs of more than 10 products in the whole series, among which the sales of braised lotus root (spicy flavor) were far ahead.
From "production" to "sales", BESTORE continues to smooth the sales of lotus roots. In November this year, in order to meet the changes in consumer demand, BESTORE launched the largest price reduction in 17 years, with an average price reduction of 22% and a maximum price reduction of 45% for 300 products. BESTORE reduces costs and increases efficiency through the first chain to ensure that products are "reduced in price but not in quality". Taking lotus root products as an example, the comprehensive cost of products is reduced and optimized through the self-built raw material base of the first business. The retail price of the hot-selling braised lotus root (spicy flavor) also starts from 99 yuan bag (168 grams) down to 79 yuan bag, which is equivalent to a 20% price reduction.
With the help of BESTORE, Hubei lotus root has not only brought Hubei lotus root into thousands of households, but also continuously promoted the high-quality development of the industry through more than ten years of unremitting efforts.
From vegetables to snacks, lotus root ashore brings wealth
The more precious the delicacy, the harder it is.
The work of digging lotus root still has to rely on manual labor, and machines can't dig it. 68-year-old Liu Jiaxin knows how to dig lotus roots. Liu Jiaxin lives in Xingzuihe Village, Shacheng District, Jingzhou, and has been digging lotus root at the door of his house for more than 30 years, and is a well-known professional lotus root digger.
Most of the lotus roots we have here are hidden in the mud up to 3 meters deep, and the quality of the lotus root is irregular, with different lengths and thicknesses, and if you dig it with a machine, it is easy to break or break the lotus root, which will destroy the taste of the lotus root. Liu Jiaxin said that although science and technology are very developed today, the lotus root is still mainly used in primitive artificiality.
While speaking, Liu Jiaxin changed into a professional waterproof suit, wrapped his whole body tightly, found a flat pond ridge, carried a high-pressure water gun, and slowly walked into the lotus pond.
Manual digging of lotus root is a technical work, and experience is very important, otherwise it is not only inefficient, but also cannot dig a complete lotus root.
I only need to look at the position of the lotus leaf on the water surface to know whether there is a lotus root under the lotus leaf, whether it is the main lotus root or the branch lotus, and I can also 'see' the direction of the lotus root in the silt. After seeing the distribution of the lotus stalk clearly, Liu Jiaxin's right hand touched the water along the lotus stalk, and at the same time opened the high-pressure water gun in his left hand, and with the pressure of the water gun, he carefully "lifted" a complete lotus root stained with silt, "Look, this lotus root has a total of 5 sections, except for the two ends of the lotus root, the middle two sections taste the best." ”
After washing off the silt on the lotus root, Liu Jiaxin temporarily put the freshly dug lotus root in the water and floated, and then salvaged it when it was time to go ashore.
See the details. Liu Jiaxin is so cautious because he is afraid of damaging the lotus root, especially the two sections with the best taste - which are the main raw materials of the braised lotus root in BESTORE.
We craftsmen eat this 'craft meal'. Near noon, Liu Jiaxin went ashore to rest, took off his airtight waterproof clothing, and his whole body was already sweaty. Heartily, he said with a smile that he doesn't eat much snacks, but he still hopes that the business of BESTORE will be prosperous, because the more the braised lotus root sells, the more he earns.
Most of the wages paid for local lotus root digging are paid daily. "You can dig up to 1,000 catties of lotus root a day, and if it's good, you can earn more than 10,000 yuan a month, and it's almost seven or eight thousand. Liu Jiaxin took a sip of water, "Besides, you can earn money at the door of your home and take care of your family, which is better than working outside." ”
The digging period of Hubei lotus root is very long, generally from August of that year to April of the following year, "if the best is good, you can earn 100,000 yuan per year just digging lotus root."
Liu Jiaxin is just a microcosm of the many professional lotus diggers in Jingzhou. In recent years, driven by leisure snack enterprises such as BESTORE, many local farmers have joined the team of lotus diggers in addition to farming, and even become professional lotus diggers. As the sales of BESTORE marinated lotus root related products continue to grow, their days are becoming more and more prosperous.
The secret marinade injects the "soul" of the lotus root
Only those who have temperature can make warm food.
Lotus root is an indispensable crop that lacks water, and it must be soaked in water or cleaned as soon as possible after harvesting, otherwise the skin will turn black.
The fresh lotus roots dug up from the lotus pond by Liu Jiaxin and other professional lotus root diggers will immediately be transported to a processing plant about 20 minutes by car, which is a workshop set up by Hubei Little Duck Food Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Little Duck"), a partner of BESTORE, near the lotus root planting base, mainly for cleaning, removing lotus root knots and cutting sections.
Although it is a primary processing, BESTORE also has strict requirements for adhering to the business philosophy of "quality of conscience": only the two sections with the best taste in the middle of the lotus root are taken, and the diameter cannot be less than 5cm;After rinsing, there should be no mud in the lotus root holes, and the shape should be smooth, straight and ......
After the initial processing, the washed and cut lotus root is soaked in clean water and transported to Xiao Huya's finishing workshop in the Guanfu Industrial Park in Shacheng District.
Compared with the initial processing, the operation of the finishing workshop is more stringent: a section of lotus root enters the nearly 100,000-level purification level aseptic production workshop, and is cleaned, marinated, filled, sterilized in the automatic assembly line, and can only be sold after passing the inspection.
Among them, the "marinating" process is the most critical and the most mysterious - if cleaning and sterilization are to ensure cleanliness and health, then marinating has injected "soul" into BESTORE's marinated lotus root series products.
I saw that the master of the little duck used a variety of natural spices, combined with the old marinade made by circulation, and first marinated the Jingjiang native hemp duck into the flavor, so that the fresh fragrance of the duck meat was fully integrated into the marinated soup. Then take out the marinated duck meat, then boil the marinated soup, put in the whole section of lotus root after peeling and cleaning, boil and simmer for 40 minutes, and then turn off the heat and let it cool, so that the sweet lotus root can fully absorb the fragrant marinade. The lotus root after such marinating is bright in color, fresh and soft and glutinous, and has an endless aftertaste.
Behind the food is the dedication and dedication of people, and time will reward the effort.
Pictured: BESTORE braised lotus root production workshop. )
Although BESTORE has strict requirements for processing processes and increases costs, such as the introduction of advanced production lines and the addition of testing instruments, the feedback from the market tells us that only by insisting on high quality can consumers be impressed, and enterprises can go further. Chen Sicai, assistant to the chairman of Xiaohu Ya, said that in the cooperation with BESTORE, the two sides promote each other, learn from each other, and become bigger and stronger together in mutual empowerment.
The cooperation between Little Duck and BESTORE began in 2007. At that time, although Xiaohu Duck was a leading local marinated food enterprise, it encountered development bottlenecks due to problems such as aging products, weak business growth, and limited brand areas.
Since the in-depth strategic cooperation with BESTORE, Xiaohu Duck has not only achieved technological upgrading, but also increased its production and sales year after year. In 2014, BESTORE alone purchased more than 100 million yuan. In 2017, a new plant of about 20,000 square meters was built, equipped with a production line with a production capacity of nearly 200,000 tons, which is specially designed for BESTORE to produce braised lotus root and other related products. By 2019, it will become the No. 1 lotus root food finishing enterprise in the country.
A lotus root "leverages" a city to help the high-quality development of the local area
The city is prosperous because of production, and the industry is strong because of enterprises.
It is precisely because of the pursuit of high-quality and delicious taste by a number of enterprises such as BESTORE and Xiaohu Duck that the lotus root industry hidden in the mud has become a big industry that supports local economic development and enriches the people to increase income.
Although Jingzhou (Honghu) lotus root has a long history and is famous, it is difficult to store the cold chain transportation cost because of the centralized listing and difficult preservation, and the local sales are mostly in the local area for a long time before, the competition is fierce, and the market scale is difficult to expand, which seriously restricts the development of the lotus root industry in Jingzhou.
Pictured: Jingzhou, Hubei, the Little Bearded Duck "Duck Root Symbiosis" Ecological Planting and Breeding Demonstration Base, where the lotus root produced is exclusively for the Little Bearded Duck and the good store. )
BESTORE has found a new way to develop Jingzhou lotus root industry by deep processing Jingzhou lotus root through modern technology, developing it into snack products that consumers like, and selling it through its own online and offline channels. Today, BESTORE Lotus Root Series has developed more than 10 products such as spicy braised lotus root, hot pot crispy lotus root slices, and bone broth flavored braised lotus root.
With years of deep insight into the market and consumer demand, BESTORE leverages terminal sales to leverage the secondary deep processing industry and the primary planting industry, reconstructs and promotes Jingzhou's lotus root industry towards high-quality development through the integrated development of the first chain, industrial chain and value chain, and also makes good contributions to the revitalization of local villages.
For lotus root farmers at the end of the agricultural industry chain, BESTORE implements the policy of "guaranteed purchase": as long as the quality is good enough, the purchase ** is more than 20% higher than the average market price, and the account will be settled in January. In this way, it can not only ensure the continuous expansion of the scale of lotus root planting of first-class merchants, but also drive many local farmers to devote themselves to lotus root planting and achieve income increase and prosperity.
With the continuous growth of the sales of BESTORE braised lotus root series products, Jingzhou lotus root has not only gone out of Hubei and to all parts of the country, but has also been sold overseas. At the 6th China International Import Expo (CIIE) held in November 2023, BESTORE's products such as marinated lotus root attracted much attention, attracting Chinese and foreign visitors to interact warmly and share their check-ins.
Prosper with industry, and bring the city with industry. Today, lotus root has become a key agricultural industry in Jingzhou. The "Jingzhou Lotus Industry Chain Development Implementation Plan" proposes to promote the transformation of the lotus industry from a single to an integrated development, and truly build the lotus industry into an enriching industry, a health industry, an ecological industry, and a cultural and tourism industry, and become a new bright spot in agricultural transformation.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.