Processed food ingredients made from fresh konjac fill the gap in side dishes for Sichuan and Chongqing hot pot, and the related project has launched its seed round financing of 8 million RMB.

In recent years, with the continuously growing demand for standardized, high-quality ingredients from hot pot restaurants and various catering outlets in Sichuan and Chongqing regions, the supply gap of fresh konjac processed ingredients in the catering supply chain has become increasingly prominent. A project focusing on fresh konjac processing is targeting this niche market, aiming to provide stable, standardized fresh konjac processed ingredient solutions for the catering sector in Sichuan and Chongqing.

Through the project team's investigation of upstream production areas, it is found that although the current konjac planting scale is large, the processing link still mainly focuses on raw material products such as dried konjac slices and refined konjac powder, and the supply of fresh konjac processed ingredients for catering terminals is relatively weak. Most catering merchants rely on traditional dried products or reprocessed konjac powder products, which cannot balance taste and freshness, and lack unified standards. The project team judges that opening up the processing chain from fresh konjac to catering ingredients will effectively fill the market gap and meet the core demands of the catering sector for "freshness, stability and standardization".

The core person in charge of the project is a veteran, an outstanding trainee of the rural practical technical talents program jointly launched by the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the CPC and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. From 2020 to 2022, he led a 10-million-yuan-level industrial strong town project allocated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and has excellent overall planning and management capabilities as well as team organization capabilities.

At present, the project has completed the prototype development of fresh konjac processed ingredient products, reached trial supply cooperation intentions with a number of catering brands in Sichuan and Chongqing, and is promoting small-batch sample trial production and taste testing. The next step is to launch seed round financing, which will be used to build a standardized fresh konjac processing center, improve the cold chain distribution system, and gradually establish a direct catering supply network covering Sichuan and Chongqing. The project party stated that it will further deepen the layout around product quality in the future. In addition to providing basic ingredients, it will also cooperate with catering customers to develop customized konjac dish solutions, promoting the upgrading of konjac from a "supporting ingredient" to a "value carrier".