武占国

A bowl of rice noodles can also stage a story of going global. Recently, a Chinese post-80s guy selling Luosifen at a stall in the US went viral on social media. His business is booming, averaging only 4 hours of operation a day to sell 100 bowls. Some people drive one or two hours just to "suck" noodles, including fellow townsfolk from Liuzhou, overseas students, and even some foreign faces. The guy mentioned that despite being thousands of miles away, the ingredients for Luosifen are shipped from Liuzhou to the US. Over a decade ago, the situation for Liuzhou Luosifen was: "Many shops, but no scale; many eaters, but can't leave Liuzhou." Yet in just 10 years, Liuzhou Luosifen has not only become popular nationwide but also has strong overseas exports, with export value growing 104-fold in the past five years.

Appearing on the big screen in New York's Times Square, exports grew a hundredfold in five years

Since the rise of live-streaming e-commerce in 2020, Luosifen has become popular both domestically and internationally. Although the foreign language translation of Luosifen is still not unified, it hasn't stopped overseas students and even foreigners from sharing their happy experiences of eating Luosifen on social media. Overseas students are the main group sharing Luosifen on social media, but of course, "authentic" foreigners sharing their experience attracts more attention. Sophie, a British girl, not only speaks Chinese but also orders in Liuzhou dialect, saying things like "two liang, add duck feet, add tofu skin!" with a bit of Liuzhou accent. Some of her Luosifen videos on social media have over 100 million views. During the pandemic, Luosifen became a sold-out product and a hard currency for many overseas students. In Spain, a pre-packaged Luosifen costs 5 euros (about 40 RMB), while in Japan it costs 1200 yen (about 80 RMB). Even during the Spring Festival Gala of the Year of the Rabbit, Luosifen appeared on the big screen in New York's Times Square. Liuzhou Luosifen has been exported to dozens of countries and regions, including the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. Many foreigners have also exclaimed: "Eating Luosifen is either 0 times or countless times!" Statistics show that in 2023, the total industry chain scale of Liuzhou Luosifen reached 66.99 billion yuan, with export value growing from 833,000 yuan in 2018 to 87.272 million yuan in 2023, a 104-fold increase. Luosifen's export overseas has also been rated by netizens as the first of the "New Four Cultural Exports" (the other three being square dancing, Chinese web novels, and online shopping for Chinese goods), making it a typical case of Chinese cultural export.

The forms of Luosifen going global include bagged Luosifen, Luosifen restaurants, and the overseas street stalls mentioned at the beginning. Bagged Luosifen is less restricted by region, and leading brands have started overseas strategies; Luosifen chain restaurants are less common overseas, with only a few individuals opening shops or street stalls abroad. There are over 100 bagged Luosifen enterprises, with leading brands including Haohuanluo, Luobawang, Li Ziqi, Xihui, and Liujiangren. Luobawang is the first bagged Luosifen enterprise in Liuzhou to obtain export qualification, and in 2020 it passed EU standards, becoming the first enterprise to export to Europe. Its sales have also ranked among the top. There is no authoritative data on overseas sales of bagged Luosifen, but according to company data, Luobawang ranks first in overseas sales, with claims that 7 out of 10 bags of Luosifen are Luobawang. Haohuanluo's sales director Dong Hailong said, "In 2023, annual export value exceeded 10 million yuan," and "sales are showing rapid growth." Li Ziqi's Luosifen was also very popular overseas around 2021, but sales declined sharply after Li Ziqi left. Various data show that Luosifen's overseas expansion is growing rapidly.

Producing 5.5 million packs a day, but overseas share remains low

The reason Liuzhou Luosifen can be sold overseas and establish a production value of tens of billions domestically is the joint efforts of enterprises and the government in supply chain construction, including brand management, authorization, and food standardization. First, the industrialization of the production process. The production of Luosifen requires setting standards for raw materials, procurement, and production processes. Raw material standards include rice cultivation, snail farming, bamboo shoot planting, processing-type bean planting, and wood ear mushroom planting. Manufacturing process standards include processing standards for raw and auxiliary materials, facility tools, and production techniques, such as the standard for making sour beans: after entering the warehouse, beans must undergo screening and two washing processes before entering the workshop for pickling. The pickled sour beans, sour bamboo shoots, tofu skin, wood ear mushrooms, peanuts, and other ingredients are transported to various places via logistics. The post-80s guy mentioned at the beginning, who set up a street stall in California, uses Luosifen ingredients sent from China. The head of Liuzhou Baisha Sour Factory said they can produce 20 million jin of sour bamboo shoots and sour beans annually. These ingredients are then processed into bagged Luosifen through standardized manufacturing processes. According to incomplete statistics, Liuzhou factories produce 5.5 million packs of Luosifen per day.

Second, Liuzhou conducts unified promotion and brand management for "Liuzhou Luosifen." After production, brand management and marketing are needed, including government marketing and enterprise marketing. In 2018, Liuzhou applied to the National Intellectual Property Administration for a geographical trademark, making "Liuzhou Luosifen" a geographical indication trademark. Liuzhou also registered trademarks in over 20 countries. Only with Liuzhou's authorization can the "Liuzhou Luosifen" logo be printed. For example, if you want to open a Luosifen production factory, you must obtain official authorization from Liuzhou to use "Liuzhou Luosifen," and you must purchase locally sourced, standard-certified raw materials and ingredients, and the factory can only be located in Liuzhou. In August 2020, the Liuzhou Municipal Commerce Bureau cooperated with the Li Ziqi brand to establish a Luosifen factory in Liuzhou. Currently, Liuzhou's enforcement of the "Liuzhou Luosifen" geographical indication is still concentrated in Liuzhou. For example, in August, Liuzhou investigated Luosifen produced in Nanning because the Nanning factory used the "Liuzhou Luosifen" geographical indication without authorization. While protecting the trademark, Liuzhou also conducts unified promotion for Liuzhou Luosifen, setting standards for specialty towns and cultural tourism services. Luosifen must also adhere to specific promotional guidelines in its marketing.

Industrialization has allowed the Liuzhou Luosifen industry to expand rapidly, but due to logistics radius limitations and tourism reach constraints, the overseas share of Liuzhou Luosifen remains very low. In 2025, Liuzhou's Luosifen industry scale target is 90 billion yuan, with an export scale target of 100 million yuan.

Luosifen going global: South Korea's Shin Ramyun is a model to learn from

Bagged Luosifen exports use overseas sales channels including Asian food shopping websites like Yamibuy, eBay, Amazon, cross-border e-commerce shipping from China, and offline channels like Chinese supermarkets and Asian supermarkets. Currently, the main customer base overseas is still mainly Chinese, with foreigners mainly trying it for novelty. Bagged Luosifen is a type of instant food, with substitutes including other Chinese foods like hot and sour noodles, rice noodles, instant noodles, and braised noodles; as well as Japanese, Korean, and Southeast Asian instant foods, such as South Korea's "Shin Ramyun," which sells well in the US.

Facing competition from other instant foods, the first thing Luosifen must do to go global is localize its taste. Searching mainstream US social media platforms for content about Luosifen, you'll find many American consumers describing it as "smelly, unacceptable, won't try again," with too many negative comments about its taste. Currently, most Luosifen going overseas are "overseas versions" of the domestic product, with only slight adjustments to recipe ratios to comply with destination laws and regulations, and after changing the outer packaging, they are directly put on shelves. This leads to many foreigners having low acceptance of the "overseas version" taste. Developing a "localized version" of Luosifen that suits the tastes of destination countries is crucial. For example, South Korea's Shin Ramyun has innovated to suit American tastes, developing flavors like Christmas, low-calorie, and rose cream to adapt to American consumers. Last year, Shin Ramyun sold 500 million packs in the US. Samyang, the Korean company that created Shin Ramyun, now earns more overseas revenue than domestic revenue. In 2024, Samyang's Q2 financial report showed total sales of 424.4 billion KRW (about 2.191 billion RMB), with overseas sales accounting for 78%.

Second, there is a need to strengthen marketing and promotion abroad. There are very few overseas marketing activities by Liuzhou Luosifen brand enterprises. On mainstream social media platforms, it's almost impossible to find popular topics about Luosifen, and the number of users and content participating in general discussions is also low, with most discussions initiated by Chinese communities. The aforementioned "foreigner who has lived in Liuzhou for over 10 years," Sophie, has viral videos, but foreigners are mostly curious and watching for fun, with few actually placing orders. Domestic e-commerce ecosystems are mature, and Luosifen brands are also active in domestic live-streaming e-commerce. Scenes like "Li Jiaqi sold 26,000 boxes of Luosifen in 3 hours of live streaming" and "100,000 portions of Luosifen in Viya's live room sold out in 1 minute" are common domestically, but rarely seen abroad. Compared to the increasingly mature domestic Luosifen industry, Luosifen still has a long way to go in going global.