Luosifen sales volume sets record

As of Sunday, around 100 million packaged servings of river snail rice noodles — luosifen — have been delivered in China and abroad this year from Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. The packaged food had generated revenue of 275 million yuan ($43.2 million), according to the Liuzhou postal administration.

At the Liuzhou transit center of ZTO Express, parcels featuring the logo of river snail rice noodles are quickly passed through an automated code reading machine on a conveyor belt and sent out through automatic sorting.

Driven by e-commerce and online shopping, the ready-to-serve food has become popular.

From January to October this year, the rice noodles achieved sales revenue of 12.58 billion yuan, up by 44.12 percent from last year. Exported luosifen valued at 35 million yuan is up 42.8 percent from last year.

According to a CGTN report, luosifen was first made in Liuzhou in the 1970s. It was a cheap street snack that people outside of the city knew little about. It was not until 2012 when the hit Chinese food documentary A Bite of China featured it that it became a household name. Two years later, China had the first company to sell packaged luosifen.

The city is further standardizing and branding the industry to enhance core competitiveness.

Wu Tuoyang contributed to this story.