“Thirty years elapsed are just like yesterday”, Mr. Mark Han Jia-Hwan said emotionally. After his graduation from the university in 1977, he entered “DaChan Great Wall Group” and worked from the lowest level. In 2001, he became President and CEO of the Group. In Taiwan, DaChan Great Wall Group is the largest food company except Uni-President. Since he led DaChan Food (Asia) Limited (DaChan Food) to make investment in mainland China, he have made a total investment of nearly 200 million US Dollars, and at present, the annual operating income of DaChan Food is about 8 billion Yuan. He is steadily extending his business from the production source to the terminal end of consumption and fulfilling his promise that “Foods with transparent sources content your appetite with reassurance”.
To launch “transparent source” food project
Mark Han told reporter that from this month, DaChan Food would open at least 5 “Sisters’ Kitchens” Chaoyang CBD of Beijing. Mark Han defines the “Sisters’ Kitchen” as the family kitchen for those white-collar female who love delicious food but cannot cook the food themselves.
Since 10 years ago, DaChan Food has spent large amount of money and human resources to start the exploration and cultivation of animal protein food supply chain source traceability system, and the construction of a lab that is capable of testing 65 food indicators cost more than 10 million Yuan. Since 2006, DaChan Food has spent large amount of money and human resources, and through persistent endeavor and effort, DaChan Food formally set up food safety traceability system that enables the traceability from farms to tables in 2009, the chicken food safety guarantee system featuring transparent source.
“Sisters’ Kitchen” roast chicken store directly faces consumers, does not offer seats inside the store and hopes that consumers can take the delicious food directly home. “At present, there are 2 stores in Beijing. We plan to o open 5 stores in November in SOHO Shangdu. At the end of this year, we plan to open more than a dozen stores”.
Consumers can input the “reassurance code” on the package of a bag or a box of chicken meat products sold under the brand of “Sisters’ Kitchen” and easily obtain such information via mobile phone or Internet as: breeding farm, breeder, time of brooding and market availability; the production information about the lot of feeds; the information about the electric slaughtering, the lot of fresh chicken meat products and quality inspection; the information about the deep processing of food. Consumers may not inquire about the information, but when he wants to make the inquiries, he will obtain the detailed quality inspection information, and this is a solemn promise of the Company. Mark Han proudly told the reporter “to facilitate consumers’ inquiry, the Company is positively communicating with supermarkets and shopping malls. If there are places available, we will invest in setting electronic inquiring machine”.
Huge potential in broiler chicken market
DaChan Food is the largest chicken meat processor in China in terms of the number of chickens slaughtered, and one of the largest chicken meat suppliers to KFC, McDonald’s, Dicos and other fast food chain enterprises in China. “DaChan Food supplies 1/3 of the chicken meat needed by YUM Group to which KFC belongs”. DaChan Food is one of the licensed chicken meat suppliers to 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and has its products exported to Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and other countries and regions.
In Taiwan, the consumption of broiler chicken per capita is near 20kg/per year, but the figure drops down to about 4kg to 5 kg in mainland China. Compared with neighboring countries with similar economic level, the consumption of broiler chicken is relatively lower. With the continuous increase of living standard, consumers have paid more and more attention to the foods with balanced nutrition, and chicken meat is one of the healthiest white meats. “Chicken is the most environmental friendly with minimal carbon emission”. Compared with other meats, chicken meat has many cooking methods with low costs. Since people in Taiwan and people in mainland China have almost the same eating habits, Mark Han believes “if people in mainland China eat as much chicken meat as Taiwanese do, it means there is huge potential in broiler chicken market in mainland China” and “in future, mainland China needs at least 500 chicken meat bases featuring integrated businesses. If each base feeds and slaughters 20 million chickens, as the leader of the industry, DaChan Food can obtain 10% of the market share, that is to say, we will need 50 bases featuring integrated businesses. But now, we only have 10”, says Mark Han.
A sense of mission for food safety
“Animal protein products including meat, egg and milk are important sources of protein nutrition of human beings, but they are of high safety risk in food chain. The underlying reason is that compared with the processing management, management of farms that offer the source products is lagged behind. For example, if the source products are polluted in the farm, they cannot be processed to be unpolluted in the downstream factories. Hence, to control the supply chains of meat, egg and milk, we must control the farms and promote the safety management and control of the feeding farms, the feeds and the drugs. The establishment of food traceability system is an effective approach to improve the safety of meat, egg and milk. In Mark Han’s opinion, from the poisonous dumpling accident 2 years ago to the tainted milk accident last year, China’s food safety problem is of significant importance. “As a food supplier, we have a strong sense of mission for food safety. This is the premise”.
DaChan Food adopts highly vertical integral business mode to integrate feeds production, chicken feeding and slaughtering, chicken meat process and processing food into a concerted business platform. This business mode can effectively trace sources.
“As for the global food field, Europe began to promote the traceability more than 10 years ago. The U.S. is legislating for the traceability of all foods. Now, the law has been approved by the House of Representatives. It is estimated that the Senate will approve the law, too. So the U.S. may be the first country to compulsorily set up food traceability system.” Mark Han told the reporter.
When talking about DaChan Food’s development plan in mainland China, Mark Han reveals “we plan that in 2015, DaChan Food will grow up to be the leader of China’s poultry meat industry, obtain more than 15% of the share of broiler chicken market, and become one of top ten food brands in mainland China”.
Reporters: WU Ying, ZHAO Guangxia
(This article was published in Beijing Business Today)
