NANNING, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Unloading the bamboo sprouts freshly dug up less than two hours ago from his tricycle, Huang Jihua hastily peeled their shells. Beside him was the anxious acquirer.
Bamboo sprouts are an essential material in Luosifen, an instant river-snail noodle famous for its distinctly pungent smell in the city of Liuzhou, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Huang, a 36-year-old bamboo grower in Baile Village, has seen a big bulge in bamboo sprouts sales this year.
"The price soared as Luosifen became an online hot cake," said Huang, noting that bamboo sprouts will bring his family an annual income of over 200,000 yuan (about 28,986 U.S. dollars) this year.
As a local signature dish, the gem of Luosifen lies in its broth, which is made by stewing river-snails for hours with several seasonings and spices. The noodle dish is usually served with pickled bamboo, dried turnip, fresh vegetables and peanuts instead of actual snail meat.
Food booths selling Luosifen can be seen everywhere in Liuzhou. Now the inexpensive street food has become a national delicacy.
In the first half of this year, sales of Luosifen rose exponentially amid the COVID-19 epidemic. An online store run by famous vlogger Li Ziqi on e-commerce giant Alibaba's platform Taobao scored monthly sales of 1.5 million packs of instant Luosifen.
Wei Yangnian, general manager of Guangxi Zhongliu Food Technology Co., Ltd., a local Luosifen producer, said that the company began teaming up with Li, who has millions of followers on YouTube and other social media platforms, in October last year.
"At first, we thought it would be pretty good if we could sell an average of 30,000 packs a day, but the figure turned out several times what we've expected in the first half of this year," said Wei, adding that a record was made with 5 million packs sold in three days.
In order to meet the soaring market demand, Wei doubled the number of workers and put two-thirds of the company's production lines to produce the Li's brand. Meanwhile, sales of the company's own brand have also been on the rise.
Li even invested in a Luosifen plant in mid-August, eying its continued popularity.
As of June, the output value of instant Luosifen in Liuzhou had reached 4.98 billion yuan, and it is estimated to reach 9 billion yuan for the entire year, according to the Liuzhou Municipal Commerce Bureau.
Meanwhile, exports of instant Luosifen in Liuzhou hit 7.5 million yuan in H1, eight times the total exports last year.
The rise of Luosifen also triggered an "industrial revolution" in the local rice noodle industry.
Many producers have begun to upgrade their production technology, for example, in extending the shelf life with better vacuum packaging.
"Technological innovation has lengthened the shelf life of instant Luosifen from 10 days to 6 months, allowing the noodles to be enjoyed by more customers," said Wei.
Luosifen's road to becoming a market buzz was driven by government efforts. As early as 2015, the local government held an industrial conference on Luosifen and vowed to boost its mechanized packaging.
Official data showed the Luosifen industry has created more than 250,000 jobs and has also driven the development of upstream and downstream industrial chains in areas of agriculture, food processing, and e-commerce, among others. Enditem
