Qiu Na opened her first steamed stuffed bun shop in Shengzhou, eastern China’s Zhejiang Province, in 2016. Nearly a decade later, her attempt to export to the United States ran aground as strict regulations on meat imports blocked shipments of her frozen buns.
"There were gaps in raw material traceability, certification was complicated, and shipping alone took 40 days," Qiu said.
To support steamed stuffed bun exports, Shengzhou launched a support initiative in May 2024. The city’s market regulation bureau broke down 130 international certification standards into easy-to-follow task lists for companies. Customs authorities opened a dedicated wharf to handle frozen shipments. Meanwhile, the city’s public security bureau established a fast-track entry and exit process for 29 whitelisted companies.
Workers make steamed stuffed buns at a steamed stuffed bun company in Shengzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province. (People’s Daily Online/Guo Yang)
"We brought in outside experts to help companies improve their production processes on site. For example, we adjusted the scallion-to-ginger ratio in the filling 23 times to better match overseas preferences," said Qian Donghai of the Shengzhou Market Regulation Bureau.
All 29 whitelisted companies have passed export inspection and quarantine with a 100 percent success rate. Their shipments to Vietnam now clear customs in as little as 24 hours.
At the end of last year, Shengzhou rolled out a coordinated export facilitation plan involving multiple departments, each with clearly defined responsibilities. So far, the system has helped 53 companies obtain certification, reduced average clearance times for steamed stuffed bun exports by 40 percent, and increased cold-chain inspection efficiency by 66.7 percent.
A smart tracking platform now lets consumers scan a QR code to check six key details about each product, such as where ingredients came from, how the food was processed, and the health status of staff involved in production. During its trial run, the platform logged more than 120,000 scans. Currently, 53 steamed stuffed bun companies in the city use their own food safety QR codes to provide traceability information to consumers.
In recent years, Shaoxing, which administers Shengzhou, has used digital platforms — including e-commerce and livestreaming sites — to help grow Shengzhou’s steamed stuffed bun industry. According to Jia Haobo, deputy director of the Shaoxing Market Regulation Bureau, the city has developed more than 30 prominent livestream studios. Ten of these now generate over 10 million yuan ($1.39 million) in annual sales.
Today, there are more than 30,000 Shengzhou steamed stuffed bun shops across China, and the industry’s total output has surpassed 14 billion yuan, according to Zhang Junrong, deputy director of the Shengzhou Commerce Bureau.
As cold-chain logistics have improved and the industry has grown, demand for skilled workers has increased steadily. In 2024, Shengzhou trained more than 500 workers, and 80 percent of them went on to work in the steamed stuffed bun industry, according to Li Kangyi, head of a training school for farmers in Shengzhou.
In May, Shengzhou launched a large-scale training program for 10,000 people, establishing 81 training centers across both urban and rural areas. To date, the steamed stuffed bun industry in the city has created 100,000 jobs, benefiting 30,000 households and raising average annual income by 48,000 yuan per person.
原文地址：http://en.people.cn/n3/2025/0625/c98649-20332293.html