Is the answer to the 100-billion-yuan market of luosifen hidden beyond the kitchen?
Over the past two years, at dinner parties in the consumer investment circle, a topic has been frequently discussed: After milk tea, coffee, and ready - to - cook meals have all entered the highly competitive market, where exactly lies the next popular consumer product category?
As the variety of investment targets decreases, the focus turns to an option once considered a "niche preference" - Snail Rice Noodles. The public is accustomed to talking about its distinctive "smell", and consumers have witnessed the popularity of Snail Rice Noodles on social media. However, what capital and the industrial circle value are a different set of data: As of 2025, the number of physical Snail Rice Noodles stores nationwide has reached 51,000, officially surpassing the two major "nationally famous stores", Shaxian Snacks and Lanzhou Ramen, and becoming the leader in the noodle and rice noodle physical store category.
This is not just a victory of taste but also an industrial exploration. In 2025, the total industrial chain revenue of Liuzhou Snail Rice Noodles exceeded 81.3 billion yuan. The continuous iteration and development of the Snail Rice Noodles industry have enabled this category to steadily move towards the 100 - billion - yuan mark and are constantly expanding the industry's potential.
Industrialization Analysis: From Street Snack to Large - scale Production Capacity
In October 2014, the former Liuzhou Food and Drug Administration issued the city's first production license for bagged Snail Rice Noodles, marking that this street snack officially entered the industrial era and started the dual - wheel drive of standardization construction and production capacity expansion. Industrialization has made it possible for the Liuzhou - flavored Snail Rice Noodles to gain national popularity.
There are many stories about the regional breakthrough of local delicacies, but the development of Liuzhou Snail Rice Noodles has exceeded most people's expectations. From applying for the "Liuzhou Snail Rice Noodles" as a national geographical indication product to establishing a product quality testing center and raw material bases, Liuzhou Snail Rice Noodles has rapidly promoted industrialization and standardization construction.
In May 2025, the light industry standard QB/T2652 - 2025 "Rice Noodles" revised by a subsidiary of Weinian was officially approved and released. It has become the highest standard in the domestic rice noodle industry and filled the gap in the industry standard for boiled rice noodles. As of 2025, Liuzhou has formulated 572 standards for the entire industrial chain, covering 172 sub - categories and 173 products. From raw material cultivation to production and processing, and then to quality control, the whole process has been standardized. Even for a small pack of dried rice noodles, there are strict requirements for its raw materials, processes, and safety indicators.
The direct result of industrialization is the large - scale growth of production capacity, and the industrialization concept has penetrated into various raw materials of Snail Rice Noodles. Taking leading enterprises as an example, Weinian Group, to which Choubao belongs, has achieved a dual - factory configuration. The second factory covers an area of over 14,700 square meters, is equipped with 31 intelligent production lines and 56 types of experimental testing equipment, and has an annual production capacity of 360 million bags.
In 2025, the sales revenue of pre - packaged Liuzhou Snail Rice Noodles reached 16.3 billion yuan, and the revenue of supporting and derivative industries was 21.61 billion yuan, directly driving more than 300,000 jobs and becoming the core industry to boost the local economy and rural revitalization. Street shops have also achieved freshness preservation through industrial quick - freezing technology and have expanded beyond the streets and alleys of Liuzhou with cold - chain supply.
The once - popular Snail Rice Noodles live - streaming has trained the strong production and supply capabilities of Liuzhou Snail Rice Noodles factories. Technological innovation has brought about an increase in production capacity on the factory production lines. Every technological breakthrough expands the production capacity boundary of Snail Rice Noodles, making "large - scale and stable" production possible and laying a technological foundation for subsequent category innovation.
Branding: From Internet Celebrity to National Staple
Industrialization has solved the supply problem of Snail Rice Noodles. When bagged boiled Snail Rice Noodles has been fully popularized, the industry has quickly entered a fierce competition. Leading brands, with their supply chain capabilities and product innovation, have transformed Snail Rice Noodles from a local specialty into a lifestyle. Snail Rice Noodles has also completed its initial expansion from the region to the whole country and from the domestic market to the global market.
How popular is Liuzhou Snail Rice Noodles? According to the data released by the external publicity office of the Liuzhou Municipal Party Committee, the scale of physical Snail Rice Noodles stores nationwide has now exceeded that of Shaxian Snacks (28,000) and Lanzhou Ramen (33,000). In terms of brands, there are more than 500 registered brands of pre - packaged Snail Rice Noodles, and the top five brands occupy more than 60% of the market share, and the industry concentration continues to increase. In 2025, the brand value of "Liuzhou Snail Rice Noodles" reached 15.051 billion yuan, ranking 19th in the top 100 list of regional brands in China's brand value, completing the transformation from a local snack to a national delicacy.
The scale of Snail Rice Noodles surpassing others is the result of full - throttle industrialization and the core achievement of branding. Those with stronger supply chain capabilities can achieve rapid iteration of product innovation; those who can continuously break through the market with taste innovation can continuously boost the brand's popularity and always maintain a good relationship with users.
Leading brands are deeply involved in the construction of the entire industrial chain from raw material cultivation to terminal sales at the production end, and are constantly building brand IP through taste innovation, cross - border cooperation, and user operation at the communication end.
Taking the Choubao brand as an example, the industrialization of Snail Rice Noodles is just the foundation. Choubao launched stinky tofu Snail Rice Noodles in 2024 and limited - edition durian Snail Rice Noodles in 2025. It also launched products such as dry - mixed Snail Rice Noodles with a turkey noodle flavor through cross - border cooperation with "Zootopia 2" and Hulu Brothers, making Snail Rice Noodles a trendy food. Continuous taste innovation and co - branding are the keys to branding that keep in touch with consumers. According to Choubao's self - media data, its official Weibo and Xiaohongshu platforms launch the "Choubao Mailbox" every month to collect opinions from all parties. Statistics show that within half a year starting from July 2025, Weinian, the parent company of Choubao, carried out 15 user product evaluation activities in total, with a cumulative number of registrants exceeding 70,000, providing a large amount of real - user feedback for product iteration and optimization.
Channel changes have further accelerated audience reach. Taking the Choubao brand as an example, its online market share has risen from 8.2% in 2023 to 11.5% in 2025, ranking first in the online instant rice noodle market share for two consecutive years. In 2025, it continued to top the hot - selling list of Snail Rice Noodles on Tmall and the popular list of Snail Rice Noodles on Douyin and other platforms. The offline Snail Rice Noodles business is also booming. In the first half of 2025, the overall market share of Weinian, the parent company of Choubao, accounted for 24% offline and 13.6% online.
Although Snail Rice Noodles already has a large mass base and branding has won it a large number of fans, for Snail Rice Noodles consumption, the consumption scenarios are not limited to street shops and one's own kitchen. How to open up more scenarios? This also lays the groundwork for the third industrial revolution of Snail Rice Noodles.
Scene Breakthrough: From "Occasional Consumption" to "Anytime Consumption"
When people are no longer satisfied with only being able to eat Snail Rice Noodles by cooking, the third core transformation of Snail Rice Noodles comes - using instant - brewing products to break the scene boundary, enabling Snail Rice Noodles to break away from the dependence on the kitchen and be eaten anytime and anywhere. This is not only a new extension of the Snail Rice Noodles category but also the key to opening up the potential of the market.
The traditional boiled Snail Rice Noodles is mainly for the kitchen scene and can only be eaten at home or in places with cooking conditions. However, the lives of contemporary young people are highly fragmented. There is a strong demand for instant food in temporary satiety situations such as dormitories, workstations, business trips, and outdoors. The dietary needs of young people have long returned to the essence of efficiency and practicality, and they are eager to achieve "the freedom to eat Snail Rice Noodles" at any time.
At the 2026 Chengdu Sugar and Wine Fair, lightweight and ready - to - eat Snail Rice Noodles products became the focus of the whole event, which also confirmed the industry trend of scene - based upgrading. In this era, instant - brewing Snail Rice Noodles is an accurate response to emerging consumer demands.
Early instant - brewing Snail Rice Noodles was limited by a weak supply chain and generally had problems such as poor taste and inauthentic flavor, making it difficult to become the mainstream.
In the process of Snail Rice Noodles moving towards a 100 - billion - yuan industry, leading brands have invested a lot of effort in instant - brewing Snail Rice Noodles. Taking the newly launched Choubao instant - brewing Snail Rice Noodles as an example, relying on the strength of Weinian's whole - industrial - chain that has been deeply cultivated for many years, Choubao has met the two core requirements of "convenience" and "authenticity" through technological breakthroughs and solved the industry's long - standing pain points.
On the one hand, it has achieved a breakthrough from dry powder to wet powder: Different from the thin powder of ordinary instant food, Choubao has achieved a six - month shelf - life for wet powder at room temperature without using any additives through technological optimization, restoring the authentic raw material form of Snail Rice Noodles.
On the other hand, it has achieved a breakthrough in the taste of rice noodles: Through a three - stage ripening process, after being brewed with boiling water, the rice noodles can not only maintain a smooth appearance but also have a fresh and elastic interior. They are soft and tough when eaten, chewy, not mushy, and not sticky to the teeth, completely solving the problems of "undercooked, not fragrant, and not flavorful" of early instant - brewing products.
Why do leading brands in the industry develop instant - brewing Snail Rice Noodles? Because instant - brewing Snail Rice Noodles is not a downgraded substitute for the boiled version but a new complementary category that conforms to consumer demand and is born based on industrial upgrading.
Now, Snail Rice Noodles has formed a complete product matrix: The boiled type is suitable for in - depth consumption scenarios such as at home, meeting consumers' in - depth pursuit of authentic flavors; the fresh - frozen type serves consumers who pursue "restaurant - style flavors" through the combination of "SF Express next - day delivery + Douyin traffic"; the instant - brewing type is suitable for efficient, mobile, and fragmented scenarios, realizing "eating Snail Rice Noodles anytime and anywhere".
When a bowl of powder can meet the needs of all scenarios such as at home, in the office, on business trips, and outdoors, it truly has the underlying logic to open up the scale potential.