No.221 中国辣条江湖

A ~RMB61.5bn spicy-strip market remains highly fragmented (leader Wei Long holds only ~4% share) and is being reshaped by regulation and diversification into higher-margin products.

• Origin story: Rising soybean prices after 1998 Yangtze floods pushed three Pingjiang, Hunan snack-makers to swap beans for wheat flour, adapting an old rice-noodle machine to invent 麻辣面筋 (spicy wheat gluten strips).
• Sweet-spicy pivot drove national scale: Around 2000, vendors added sugar to appeal to kids (the origin of today's sweet-spicy 辣条), and by 2000-01 factories were shipping 500+ machines in two months as the format spread nationally.

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