On June 21st, Hai Di Lao and the government of Leishan County, Guizhou jointly held the opening ceremony of Leishan Fish Sauce Sour Pot, and also released a complete set of new summer products paired with Leishan Sour Soup Pot.
The fish sauce acid making technique in Leishan County was selected as a representative project of the fifth batch of provincial intangible cultural heritage in Guizhou Province in June 2019. At the plaque awarding ceremony at the event site, the People's Government of Leishan County authorized Hai Di Lao to be the designated promotion agency for fish sauce acid in Leishan County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province. According to the cooperation agreement, the Leishan specialty fish sauce acid produced by the cooperative enterprise will be exclusively supplied to Haidilao, and over 1300 Haidilao stores will launch this product. Zhou Zhaocheng, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hai Di Lao, stated that "Hai Di Lao Lei Shan Sour Soup Pot" is an important attempt by Hai Di Lao to promote regional flavors nationwide, and also opens up a new path for Hai Di Lao to support rural revitalization and local industrial development.
It is reported that after extensive consumer research and taste testing, Hai Di Lao has officially launched the Lei Shan Sour Soup Pot Bottom and a complete set of summer dishes paired with this pot bottom, including the sour soup pot bottom with Lei Shan fish sauce acid added, the sour and spicy thin cut beef paired with the pot bottom, the fish and shrimp Shuangquan River Fresh Plate with black fish slices and butterfly shrimp, the high mountain dragon bamboo sweet bamboo shoots, and the triple grapefruit flavored ice drink. The person in charge of the R&D product team for Hai Di Lao Lei Shan Sour Soup Pot stated that Hai Di Lao has established a traceability system for agricultural products based on food safety standards, providing process assistance and technical guidance to local cooperative enterprises to achieve standardized and process oriented production. After ensuring unique taste, product safety, and stable production, fine tune the taste of the sour soup pot bottom, and develop multiple production standards based on different acidity and spiciness to make it more suitable for the public taste. At present, Haidilao Hot Pot has reached cooperation with local enterprises and has preliminarily finalized a purchase order for over 300 tons of fish sauce acid, which is also one-third of the annual production of fish sauce acid by the cooperating enterprise.
Haidilao said that in recent years, Haidilao has launched many regional landmark food, such as soup with pepper in its stores in Henan, Hot dry noodles in its stores in Wuhan, and other city limited items such as Shanghai Huangdenglong Hot Pot and Kunming Hot Pot Oyster also show regional characteristics. In 2023, Hai Di Lao launched a total of 29 national new products, upgraded 13 national dishes, and developed or updated over 300 local dishes.
The New Beijing News reporter noticed that since 2023, the Southwest sour and spicy flavor has gradually become a popular flavor among many well-known catering brands. According to Tianyancha, from January to November 30, 2023, there were a total of 1656 newly registered "sour soup" related enterprises in China. However, some industry insiders believe that sour soup has limited its scale growth due to its unique fermentation environment and ingredients. Meanwhile, due to the standardization of its production process and the transparency of its supply system, this hotpot category lacks technical barriers. Once the business model is successfully validated and a brand can achieve scale growth in a specific region, there may be a situation where multiple brands compete for market share.