The food industry is showing a cluster trend.

　At Liaoning Youge Biotechnology Co., Ltd., once bottles of Youge milk beverages roll off the production line, they are promptly packed into boxes and shipped out. Recently, faced with an avalanche of orders pouring in, Youge milk continues to be in high demand despite 24-hour nonstop production. After several years of development, Youge milk has become the third-largest milk beverage brand in China, trailing only Wahaha’s Nutritional Quick Line and Xiaoyangren in sales volume. The company is just one microcosm of the rapid growth of our city’s food industry.

　　In recent years, the food industry in our city has continued to expand in scale, initially forming a food industry system dominated by agricultural and sideline food processing, food manufacturing, and beverage manufacturing. Last year, the number of large-scale food enterprises in the city reached 88, with a total industrial output value of 4.33 billion yuan. The food industry has become one of the pillar industries of our city’s private economy, driving the joint development of upstream and downstream sectors such as agriculture, animal husbandry, packaging, machinery and equipment manufacturing, and the chemical industry.

　　The food industry clusters in various regions exhibit distinct local characteristics. In urban areas, the primary products are beer, seasonings, and dairy beverages; Tai'an specializes in meat and poultry processing as well as refined rice processing; and Xiuyan focuses on edible mushroom processing, canned fruits, and beverages. As the specialty food-processing industries in each county (city) and district continue to develop, a number of leading enterprises have emerged one after another: Qingdao Beer (Anshan) Co., Ltd. and China Resources Snow Breweries (Anshan) Co., Ltd. produce draft beer that, with an overwhelming advantage, dominate Anshan’s draft-beer market; the “Youge” and “Wandashan” product lines manufactured by Liaoning Youge Biotechnology Co., Ltd. and Wandashan Anshan Dairy Co., Ltd. not only hold a significant share in Anshan but also enjoy a substantial presence nationwide; more than 98% of the canned mushroom and fruit products produced by Anshan Dongda Food Co., Ltd. are exported to countries and regions including Russia, Germany, Japan, and South Korea—primarily focusing on processed chicken products. Liaoning Rentai Food Group Co., Ltd. The facility can process 25 million broiler chickens annually, accounting for 70% of the total broiler output in Tai'an County.

　　Developing a food industry led by the deep processing of agricultural and sideline products is an effective way to address issues such as difficulties in selling these products and their low added value in our city. The continuous growth and development of the agricultural and sideline product processing industry have played a significant role in enhancing agricultural efficiency, increasing farmers’ incomes, adjusting the internal structure of agriculture, and promoting overall agricultural development. In Tai’an County, 12 grain-processing enterprises directly benefit 16,000 farming households, with each household seeing an average income increase of 5,600 yuan; livestock-product processing enterprises directly benefit 9,500 farming households, with each household experiencing an average income increase of 15,000 yuan. Last year, the city’s large-scale food industry cluster employed a total of 10,511 people, of whom more than 8,000 were directly hired from rural areas, involving nearly 100,000 farming households in related industries and facilitating the transfer of surplus rural labor. By developing specialized villages and towns, our city has promoted adjustments to the agricultural industrial structure and established industrial clusters led by large enterprises, with small and medium-sized enterprises collaborating through division of labor. Currently, XiuYan’s edible mushroom cultivation has reached a considerable scale, with an annual output of 35,000 tons, ranking first nationwide. XiuYan has been recognized by the China Edible Mushroom Association as the “No. 1 County for Slime Mushrooms” in China. Tai’an has vigorously developed specialty industries such as deep processing of rice and meat and poultry processing. At present, the Qing Shui rice and meat-poultry processing industries have initially formed integrated production, supply, and sales chains under the “company + base + farmer” model. Grain-processing enterprises have an annual refined-rice processing capacity of 253,000 tons, far exceeding the county’s annual rice production of 120,000 tons.

　　Today, a group of backbone enterprises with strong economic strength and market competitiveness continue to enhance their technological equipment levels. A host of advanced technologies—such as ultra-high-temperature sterilization, quick-freezing, and molecular distillation—have been widely adopted in the food industry, enabling our city’s food manufacturing sector to achieve a new leap forward in technological sophistication and helping us create a batch of high-quality, renowned brands. The four provincial-level famous trademarks—“Weibang,” “Jinshengquan,” “Houjia,” and “Shenshanxiu”—as well as the two provincial-level flagship products—“Renlong” and “Nanguo Li”—and the three national Grade-A green products—“Linjiang,” “Jiahe,” and “Bajiaotai”—have become the finest symbols of our city’s continuously thriving food industry. To date, the city has 135 agricultural product production bases certified at the provincial level as pollution-free, and 27 products have been certified by the National Center for the Development of Green Food and are currently authorized to use the green food label. The city’s cumulative area dedicated to the production of pollution-free and green foods has reached 1.8 million mu.