FOCUS Firday, July 27, 2018 8 Rice noodles’

Rice noodles are a staple in Jiangxi’s cuisine. Many people eat A worker bags up rice noodles three rice noodles at times a day. Mr Big Jiangxi Wufeng.

They soaked the rice, mashed it ter when she was tasked to join the and pressed it into noodles at high research and development process of temperatures. The fi rst results were The turnaround story of a rice rice noodles. She eventually took up disappointing, says Guo. The unfer- the o er and had to send her daugh- mented rice was only 10 percent noodle mill in Jiangxi province is ter to her parents’ home in nearby cooked after all that and the rice Ruijin county under a demanding iangxi Wufeng Food Co — noodles still broke in boiling water. one of innovative craftsmanship work schedule. Guo’s daughter did once a small rice-noodle It was found, after thousands of not live with her until she was in mill in Huichang, Jiangxi trial tests, that when the rice was transforming the traditional staple Grade 3 at primary school. This was province — has achieved its crushed into fine particles, small Guo’s greatest regret. legendaryJ status in Hong Kong after enough to pass through a 0.25-mm E orts fi nally paid o . The factory nearly crashing and burning in the sifter, it could reach a higher cooked against the background of the became one of China’s fi rst chewy late 1980s. Today, about 150 bowls of level at 75 percent after pressing. rice-noodle producers. All it needed its rice noodles are sold every min- Then it was back to the draw- nation’s reform and opening-up, was orders. ute at two of the biggest rice-noodle ing board to fi nd a way to cook the chain restaurants in Hong Kong — noodles through and through. The reports Dara Wang. From overseas to domestic Tam Chai Yunnan Noodles and Tam noodles were placed in an enclosed In 1992, the factory took its new Jai Sam Gor Mixian. room at a specifi c temperature and formula rice noodles to a food expo Aficionados credit the noodles’ humidity, and kept there for eight in Hainan province. They took a popularity to their distinctive chewy hours. The noodles produced then photo of a single rice noodle hold- Guo Yonghong, Jiangxi Wufeng’s texture. were 85 percent cooked, and two ing a 2,300-gram weight. A bundle manager, said the company never The company’s success came only minutes’ steaming nearly completed of about 20 strings of rice noodles changes the package or logo of its rice after three years of trial and error, the cooking at 95 percent. was enough to sustain the weight noodles when selling overseas. strain and frustration, but it stands Still, it wasn’t perfect. “We got the of a person weighing 48 kg. The as an example of how small compa- ripe level we wanted, but when the photo attracted the attention of a nies can succeed. rice noodles were taken out of the Jiangxi-based company specializing province does not have an estab- Three decades ago, rice noodles steaming room, we were all stunned,” in the import and export of cereals lished reputation for high-quality had quite a di erent texture. Neither says Guo. The noodles had hardened and oils. The company introduced rice noodles amid sti competition were they popular. Before becom- and were glued together. They tried the factory to China Resources in from Yunnan province and Guangxi ing a subsidiary of China Resources to force the noodles apart by hand. Hong Kong, which is now a Fortune Zhuang autonomous region, whose Ng Fung in 1996, Jiangxi Wufeng No luck. “Even if we had used all Global 500 enterprise. reputations are well established. had been a 20-worker factory under our strength until our hands turned Two months later, the mill had the food bureau of Huichang county red, we still could not separate the its fi rst order from Canada — 100 Speak for Jiangxi since the 1960s. Sales were slow. Pro- noodles.” boxes of rice noodles, 2.4 tons. According to the Jiangxi rice noo- duction was less than 10 tons a year They did everything, including It took the factory nearly half dle association, comprising nearly and never improved. By 1989, things covering the noodles with a cotton a month to complete the order. 100 rice-noodle producers, Jiangxi were so bad that people got indiges- quilt soaked in water. They tried an They did not have a logo or pack- exported 30,000 tons of its signature tion, gas pains and fl atulence from induction cooker, hoping the steam aging so they opted to use China straight-cut rice noodles last year. their noodles. It was time to create would soften the noodles. Nothing Resources’, and the company has This accounts for over 60 percent of something better or go broke. worked. stuck with that logo since. the volume of the nation’s straight- Seven workers, including Guo Months later, team members’ The order came with a historical cut rice noodle exports, ranking Yonghong, a mother of a one-year- patience almost snapped; one of blessing, owing to the socialist mar- fi rst among all provinces or regions. old girl at the time who later became them vented his frustration by pitch- ket economy introduced the same However, few in China know that the company’s manager, formed a ing a handful of the rice noodles into year as part of the nation’s reform those rice noodles are from Jiangxi, research and development team to a vat of water. The rock-hard noodles and opening-up policy launched said Yang Xiaolin, secretary of the take charge of machinery design, came apart. Then, they stood up in by then paramount leader Deng association. data handling, plant operations and the boiling water and did not break. Xiaoping in 1978. To promote brand awareness, the quality control. “Our goal was to pro- The noodles held their shape even A series of economic reforms association applied for a collective duce elastic rice noodles, suitable for when a comb was run through them. aimed at attracting foreign invest- trademark which was approved in everyone, even those with stomach The factory adapted the combing ment followed, resulting in China March this year. It will establish a problems,” recalls Guo. method and has since used a comb- achieving average economic growth set of standards, covering produc- They found the problem in the fer- shaped stainless steel machine to of 9.7 percent annually from 1978 tion exceeding national standards, mentation process, which she calls separate the rice noodles. to 2016. annual sales volume and brand an essential part of the rice noodle The experiment took three years The days of food shortages reputation. Members of the asso- making process. Fermentation during which Guo worked from were still indelibly imprinted in ciation adhering to the standards consumes the sugar in an oxygen- 7:30 am to 2 am the next day for 15 the thoughts of people back then. will be allowed to use the group’s deprived environment, producing yuan ($4) a month. She had almost Domestic purchasing power was trademark. organic acids or gases that cause no time to eat and sleep and suf- limited. A 24-kg box of rice noodles Yang hopes the trademark will A chef cooks rice noodles of Jiangxi Wufeng and serves them with soup stomach acidity and upset. fered stomach problems. Her weight produced by Guo’s factory, priced at strengthen trust among consumers. at a restaurant in Huichang county, Jiangxi province. PHOTOS BY DARA WANG Fermentation could only make dropped to 45 kilograms. Her dorm / CHINA DAILY HK$180, was beyond the means of “We would like consumers to know the rice 50 percent cooked. The low closed before midnight so she had most people on the Chinese main- that rice noodles with this collective cooked level made the noodles lose to squeeze through the iron bars of land back then. trademark are safe and reliable,” he the chewiness so they were not very the front door. She had to become The company steered clear of the said. “Those of poor quality will be appetizing, explains Guo. Not only something of a contortionist. mainland market for more than a gradually weeded out.” that, they were prone to breaking in The day-to-day intensive work decade until 2003, when it estab- Guo is currently investing over 2 boiling water. didn’t beat Guo, who has never lished its market overseas. As gener- million yuan to study fully automat- The team overhauled production regretted joining the team even dur- I hope that, one day, al living standards on the mainland ed production, and expects Jiangxi by abandoning the traditional fer- ing their toughest times. When talk- Jiangxi’s rice noodles will improved, prices were no longer a Wufeng’s annual production capac- mentation process and made a new ing about her daughter, she softens deterrent. ity to reach 70,000 tons by 2020. formula from scratch to avoid stom- her voice. “She’s the one I owe most.” be easy to get and become Today, the mainland market It’s beyond her imagination that ach upset caused by organic acids Guo hesitated for some 10 days takes up the largest share of Jiangxi after three decades, the company and gas through fermentation. out of concern for her little daugh- famous, just like instant Wufeng’s sales volume. Last year, could reach its level of success today, noodles.” the company produced 30,000 tons or that she would one day be devel- of rice noodles, of which 55 percent oping innovative plans for the rice- Guo Yonghong, was sold on the mainland (mainly in noodle business. Jiangxi Wufeng’s manager key metropolitan areas like Beijing The company, which now employs and Shanghai), while the rest was 856 people earning 3,500 yuan sold overseas. monthly, is increasing its production To stay competitive, Jiangxi scale and developing its e-commerce Wufeng started an online store on to provide some 400 new jobs over Tmall.com — China’s largest busi- the next two years. ness-to-consumer online retail plat- “I hope that, one day, Jiangxi’s form run by Alibaba Group — in rice noodles will be easy to get and 2014. But, about four years later, sales become famous, just like instant remained sluggish due to the low noodles,” says Guo. recognition of the rice noodles from In the near future, she hopes the Jiangxi, says Guo. fi rst thing that comes to mind when “To perform better in the main- people mention Jiangxi will no lon- land retail market, we need more ger be poverty, but famous chewy branding awareness and recogni- rice noodles. Rice noodles of Jiangxi Wufeng go through tion,” she argues. more than 10 production procedures at the mill Many rice-noodle producers in Contact the writer at before being packaged. Jiangxi have the same problem — the [email protected]