The "local specialty" article behind "One Chicken"
Hakka salt wine chicken, shredded chicken, pepper and sesame chicken... In the production workshop of Changting County Piaoxiang Food Factory in Cewu Town, Changting County, Fujian, freshly baked Hetian chicken pre-made dishes are waiting to be shipped to the country for sale. .
Hetian chicken is a well-known "native product" of Changting County. It enjoys a good reputation for its firm, delicious and nutritious meat. It is the protagonist of local banquets. But in the past, because most of them were raised spontaneously by farmers, with scattered and small scales and insufficient industrial extension, river chickens have long been only a local niche "treasure" food.
"Through intensive processing, more than 20 kinds of prepared vegetable products we have developed in recent years have been well recognized by the market. Last year, the total output value exceeded 50 million yuan." Zheng Minzhi, the person in charge of Changting County Piaoxiang Food Factory, said that the current scale of Hetian chicken breeding It is getting bigger and bigger, and the industrial chain and related supporting services are becoming more and more perfect. He is full of confidence in the development of the industry.
It is not easy to raise river field chickens on a large scale. It costs a lot to purchase chicks, feed, veterinary drugs, etc. If you encounter chicken plague or poor sales, your hard work can easily be in vain. Moreover, in order to ensure the quality and taste, river chickens are generally raised in a free-range mode, which has high requirements on site and environment.
In order to allow river chickens to better "fly" out of the valley and help rural revitalization, Changting County has integrated more than 300 million yuan in funds since 2018 to provide support in improving the quality of seedlings, standardized breeding, brand building, etc., and vigorously promote new breeding model, and encourage diversified production and business entities to participate in the construction of the entire industry chain.
Workers are sterilizing eggs that are about to be sent to a smart egg incubator. Photo by reporter Li Haoze
"After the development of industrialization, the demand for high-quality river field chicks has increased significantly." Yu Xianfu, head of Changting County Xiulv Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Co., Ltd., said that the agricultural and rural departments have provided technical support for the purification and strengthening of chicken chicks, and guided farmers to introduce automatic control The temperature-controlled and humidity-controlled intelligent egg incubator has increased the hatching rate from the original 60% of artificial incubation to over 80%, and the number of chicks produced for slaughter has increased to more than 1 million birds per year.
In response to the problems of farmers' insufficient skills and high breeding risks, Changting County actively introduces experienced and powerful breeding enterprises and guides them to expand the scale of river chicken breeding through the "company cooperative farmer" model. "The company provides chicks, breeding technology and product recycling, and farmers are only responsible for breeding." said Liao Yongfu, business leader of the Changting County Hetian Chicken Industry Development Leading Group Office.
Currently, Changting has 193 farms that produce more than 10,000 river chickens annually. Last year, the county's annual chicken production exceeded 16.5 million. With the expansion of breeding scale, industry extension and industrialization supporting services such as breeding and breeding, slaughtering and packaging, cold chain logistics, and product processing of river chickens have also been further improved.
"In recent years, Changting has built a standardized breeding base, species conservation and propagation farms in Hetian Town. Different from the past method of directly selling live chickens, in 2022, it also plans to build a Hetian chicken prepared vegetable industrial park and introduce Fujian Yin Enterprises such as Wan Agriculture Co., Ltd. and Baxiguan Food Co., Ltd. are promoting production through sales," said Liao Yongfu.
In the standardized slaughtering workshop, river chickens are waiting to be processed. Photo by reporter Li Haoze
Walking into Chenlu Manor located in Yaoxia Village, Hetian Town, Changting County, I saw that the mountains and forests are covered with the precious Chinese herbal medicine Polygala Polygala. Zeng Xianfu, the person in charge of the farm, enthusiastically opened a can of self-heating chicken soup product for tourists to taste. "We have developed products using Polygala root, Ganoderma lucidum and river chicken grown under the forest, and combined the river chicken culture under the forest, Chinese herbal medicine cultivation and health tourism." Zeng Xianfu said.
Geographical indication products, national famous and high-quality new agricultural products... Today, Hetian chicken has become a "golden sign" of Changting's high-quality agricultural products. At the same time, taking advantage of opportunities such as the cooperation between Longyan and Guangzhou and the construction of the "Vegetable Basket" project in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the market for Hetian chicken products has further expanded.
In 2023, the output value of the entire Hetian chicken industry chain in Changting County has reached 3.3 billion yuan, and the market scale of processed products has gradually expanded, creating employment for more than 89,000 people. “The next step is to build a modern agricultural industrial park and promote the in-depth development of the entire industrial chain.” Liao Yongfu said.
