Fujian Minwei Industrial Co., Ltd. is a national key leading enterprise in agricultural industrialization, a national high-tech enterprise, a national quality benchmark enterprise, and one of the first batch of national aquatic seed industry enterprises. The company is headquartered in the beautiful “Hometown of Chinese Sea Bass” – Fuding City. On October 24, 2017, it was listed on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ) system (stock code: 871927).
Fang Xiu, Chairman of Minwei Industrial
The fast-paced lifestyle and changes in consumer demand, such as the rise of solo dining and smaller households, have, to some extent, spurred the development of ready-to-eat meals for the C-end market. With the deepening recognition of the “big food concept” and the inherent advantages of marine foods, such as high nutritional value, unique flavors, and a wide variety of options, aquatic ready-to-eat meals are gradually gaining popularity among consumers. Market data shows that in 2022, the scale of China’s aquatic ready-to-eat meal industry reached 104.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.8%. It is expected that by 2026, the market size will reach 257.6 billion yuan. As the aquatic ready-to-eat meal industry enters a “fast track” of development, it also gradually exposes market shortcomings, such as highly homogeneous products and lagging technological innovation, exacerbating industry chaos and competition among enterprises.
In this context, Minwei, a leader in the sea bass breeding field, has achieved outstanding results in the ready-to-eat meal sector within just two years, with a single product surpassing 200 million yuan in sales. Moreover, with highly competitive products and strategic positioning in the C-end market, the company has rapidly expanded its presence in both domestic and international markets, with products exported to more than a dozen countries and regions. How did Minwei, as a “cross-industry player,” successfully achieve a stunning transformation and upgrade? What long-term plans does the company have for the future?
“China Food Miles” interviewed Fang Xiu, Chairman of Fujian Minwei Industrial Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Minwei), to learn about the company’s development history, innovative capacity, and competitive moat.
Riding the Wave: A Sea Bass Breeding Leader Crosses into the Ready-to-Eat Meal Industry
Chairman Fang introduced that Minwei Foods’ parent company, Fujian Minwei Industrial Co., Ltd., was established in 1992 and has a history of 31 years. Over the past 30 years, Minwei Industrial has focused on seedling breeding, aquaculture, processing, and extended industries, mastering numerous industry-leading core technologies and taking critical steps at different stages. When domestic seedling technology was still in its infancy, the company developed sea bass reproductive control and indoor artificial breeding technology, solving the industry’s “bottleneck” problem. During the immature stage of marine aquaculture, the company developed intelligent deep-water anti-wave cages, promoting the digital transformation of the fishing industry. In August 2010, when marine food processing technology was lagging, the company established Fujian Minwei Foods Co., Ltd., specializing in deep processing of marine fish, accelerating the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and empowering high-quality industrial development through technological innovation.
Chairman Fang mentioned that at the early stage of Minwei Foods’ establishment, in response to the market’s traditional processing and sales models of fresh and frozen aquatic products, the company pioneered the processing techniques of fish floss and fish jerky, greatly increasing the added value of aquatic products and embarking on the path of deep processing research and development. In 2021, with the rapid development of ready-to-eat meals and the deepening trend of meal preparation in the catering industry, Minwei seized the opportunity to enter the ready-to-eat meal sector to overcome the market difficulties brought by the pandemic.
Entering the new sector, Minwei Foods fully leveraged its supply chain advantages in aquatic products such as sea bass. Currently, the company focuses on sea bass, large yellow croaker, and their deep-processed ready-to-eat meal products and ready-to-eat snacks. These include over 50 products, such as fish floss, fish jerky, fish collagen peptides, ready-to-eat grilled fish, and shredded fish.
Among these, “fish floss” is Minwei Foods’ star product, mainly made from sea bass, cod, and swordfish, offering a delicate and smooth texture rich in essential amino acids and vitamins. This product is popular both domestically and internationally and is currently exported to 11 countries and regions, including Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.
Another star product is ready-to-eat grilled fish, made from premium Tongjiang sea bass and large yellow croaker. The product’s processing involves modern technology, resulting in tender, flavorful, and highly nutritious fish with high protein content. This product has been highly praised and welcomed by consumers, with single-product sales exceeding 200 million yuan this year.
Innovation-Driven High-Value, High-Quality Development
In a highly competitive market environment, the ability to quickly create star products and establish brand recognition is undoubtedly supported by continuous innovation. Chairman Fang explained that Minwei Foods places great emphasis on technological innovation and independent research and development. The company has established a first-level independent core platform, a second-level key technology platform, and a third-level joint construction platform to gather innovation resources from the marine fish industry chain, attract innovative talents, and carry out technological innovation to provide scientific and technological support and services for industry chain research.
The internal R&D team at Minwei is mainly composed of experts, technicians, and outstanding talents in the deep processing field. The team currently includes 32 R&D personnel, 6 mid-to-senior engineers, 6 assistant engineers, and 20 experienced technical personnel.
Externally, Minwei has established the “Minwei Think Tank,” comprising 36 authoritative experts, including Chen Songlin, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Guan Changtao, the chief scientist of the National Marine Fish System. The company has also built 16 research platforms, including the Zhangzhou Comprehensive Experiment Station of the National Marine Fish Industry Technology System, the National Society Innovation Service Station, the Fujian Sea Bass Breeding Key Laboratory, the Fuding Sea Bass Science and Technology Courtyard, and the Enterprise Technology Center. Minwei Foods empowers the entire industry chain’s technological research through innovation. In recent years, the company has carried out scientific research collaborations on marine fish breeding, species farming, aquatic product processing, and cold storage preservation technology.
In terms of industry-university-research integration, Minwei Foods collaborates with major universities and research institutes such as Shanghai Ocean University and Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University.
With the support of a strong R&D team and innovative capabilities, Minwei Foods and its products have received dual recognition from the industry and the market. Its “fish floss” has been awarded as a key new product by the Fujian Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, the single champion product of Ningde City’s manufacturing industry, and has won the “Gold Award Product” for 12 consecutive sessions at the China (Fuzhou) Fisheries Expo. The “grilled fish” was awarded the “2022 Fujian Provincial Ready-to-Eat Meal Gold Medal Dish,” and Minwei Foods was recognized as a “Fujian Provincial Ready-to-Eat Meal Leading Enterprise” in June 2023.
Building a Competitive Moat through Comprehensive Strength
How to break through in a rapidly changing market is a core challenge faced by every enterprise. Minwei has built its unique competitive moat through years of solid internal development.
Chairman Fang explained that Minwei has the advantage of a full industry chain. The company has established a full industry chain system covering seedling breeding, aquaculture, processing, and sales, forming a layout where “aquaculture is the foundation, seed breeding is the focus, and deep processing and ready-to-eat products are the core.” The company adopts a “company + farmer + base” business model, selling seedlings to farmers at fair prices, providing technical guidance and standardization, and signing fish repurchase agreements to ensure farmers’ stable profit margins while maintaining smooth production and sales processes, thus preserving Minwei’s competitive pricing power in the market.
Minwei’s products have quality and differentiation advantages. The company owns a natural harbor suitable for fish breeding and has long-term cooperation with farmers, implementing a 5+1 management model (unified seedlings, unified feed, unified standards, unified technology, unified testing). This approach standardizes operations across the entire industry chain, from seedling and feed supply to cost reduction and technology output, ensuring stable supply channels for raw materials.
In terms of quality and safety management, Minwei implements a “one product, one code” food safety information traceability system and has obtained certifications for national standards management systems, such as ISO9001, ISO22000, and HACCP, ensuring the safety of products from ocean to table. Chairman Fang highlighted that Minwei’s products have been designated for national leader summits and the Olympics. In September 2017, as the largest fresh supplier in Fujian Province, the company supplied sea bass to the BRICS Xiamen Summit and was recognized as a “Special Supply Base for the National Leaders’ Xiamen Summit.” In February 2022, “boneless sea bass” was designated as a product for the Winter Olympics, and the company’s base was recognized as a “National Food and Nutrition Education Base.”
Minwei Foods integrates its resources to create differentiated product categories by adapting seasoning and quality levels to different scenarios and consumer groups. For example, it offers different seasoning and dish levels based on regional differences (North vs. South), domestic vs. international markets, and online vs. offline sales channels. Additionally, by focusing on grilled fish as the core product, the company drives the sales of other local agricultural products, such as pairing Fuding betel nut taro with grilled fish to promote more local specialty products.
Minwei possesses core technological advantages. Chairman Fang explained that in seedling breeding, Minwei has mastered the “sea bass reproductive control and indoor artificial seedling breeding technology,” filling a gap in the national sea bass breeding industry. This technology is a core support for Minwei’s superior seed breeding and is currently the leading seedling technology in the industry, with an annual seedling output ranking first in the industry. In aquaculture, Minwei’s anti-wave deep-water cage farming technology uses a new type of floating rectangular intelligent farming cage system that can monitor the environment and automatically feed the fish. In processing, Minwei has developed 15 processing technologies, including those for fish jerky, fish floss, and ready-to-eat grilled fish, capable of processing over 20 types of products.
Envisioning the Future of Ready-to-Eat Meals and Preparing for Challenges
Discussing the future of the ready-to-eat meal industry, Chairman Fang stated that while the B-end market has matured, the C-end market is still in the exploratory stage. However, with the diversification of dishes, the convenience of purchasing channels, the development of cold chain logistics, and the increasing consumer awareness of ready-to-eat meals, the C-end is expected to experience significant growth.
Chairman Fang is optimistic about the development prospects of the aquatic ready-to-eat meal segment, particularly the market potential of dishes like pickled fish and grilled fish, which are expanding from chain restaurants to the B-end and from dining establishments to households. The B-end market has a large demand and meets the catering industry’s needs for cost reduction, efficiency, and standardization. Additionally, the share of group dining and rural chefs is increasing yearly, promoting the rapid development of the ready-to-eat meal market. The B-end and C-end markets must collaborate and drive each other forward to jointly create a bright future for the ready-to-eat meal industry.
Facing future market challenges, Chairman Fang mentioned that Minwei Foods will further strengthen market research, develop new ready-to-eat meal products through precise market positioning to meet the personalized needs of different consumers and consumption scenarios, and actively seek overseas distributors and retailers to establish partnerships. The company plans to establish localized sales and distribution networks in the future to deliver products directly to overseas customers. To address potential production capacity issues, Minwei will actively upgrade its equipment, enhance the intelligence and automation of its production facilities, further reserve factory space, and increase capacity to prepare for the expected boom and in-depth development of the ready-to-eat meal market.
Post time: Aug-29-2024