Looking for Ding'an: How did a bowl of Hainan's "Fishermen's Sour Soup" get onto the world's dining table?

China News Service, Hainan Ding'an, June 4th. Title: Looking for Ding'an: How did a bowl of Hainan's "fisherman's sour soup" get onto the world's dining table?

Reporters Wang Xiaobin Li Yufan

In Puqian Town, Wenchang, Hainan, grains and vinegar were once a "ration" for fishermen when they went to sea. Sour and spicy, with freshness hidden inside, this bowl of soup made from the secondary fermentation of lees left over from brewing can not only whet the appetite and dispel the cold, but also help food be preserved for a longer period of time. For a long time in the past, this smell was mainly spread in the streets and alleys in front of shops and on the stoves of local people.

Hainan glutinous rice vinegar is a hot pot soup popular among local people. Photo provided by interviewee

Nowadays, this local flavor is undergoing an industrial leap from handicraft workshops to modern factories. In Leiming Town, Ding'an County, about 60 kilometers away from Puqian Town, a dregs and vinegar brand called "Puqian Sanpo" took several years to build a standardized production line, and its products have been sold to many overseas countries.

"Puqian Sanpo" is an old brand originating from Puqian. Its brand story can be traced back to the 1930s: founder Li Chunhua made wine from sweet potatoes, and used the remaining distiller's grains and ancestral distiller's yeast to make vinegar. Huang Huamei, the second generation descendant, set up a stall next to Puqian Primary School in 1979. Because her husband was the third eldest child in the family, he was affectionately called "Third Wife" by the neighbors, and the brand got its name from then on. In 2008, Ye Mei'e, the third generation successor, opened the industry's first dregs and vinegar store in Haikou, bringing this local taste from Puqian Town to the provincial capital.

Factory-produced dregs vinegar products. Photo by reporter Wang Xiaobin

It was Li Xiaoyun, the fourth generation successor, who made "Buqian San Po" move from a traditional small workshop to industrial production. After graduating from university, she invited investor Lin Guan to jointly promote brand development. In 2021, with the investment promotion and policy support of Ding'an County, the company built a factory in Shandi Village, Leiming Town, and registered and established Ding'an Ahoo Food Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Ahoo Food"). The "Puqian Sanpo" vinegar has thus started the transformation from a handmade workshop to a standardized one.

Zeng Weikang, assistant to the chairman of Ooooo Food, recalled to reporters that in the past, glutinous rice vinegar relied on family workshops for a long time. It had a single taste, unstable quality, and a short shelf life. It was easy to swell and deteriorate when the weather was hot. After the establishment of the Ding'an factory, the R&D team went through repeated strain cultivation and process debugging. In addition to successfully producing the raw vinegar soup in batches, it also successfully developed a variety of products, forming today's four major product matrices and more than 30 flavors.

A series of dregs and vinegar products developed by "Puqian Sanpo". Photo by reporter Wang Xiaobin

The most basic product matrix and the first to be introduced to the market is bottled lees vinegar in a traditional form, which contains distiller's lees fermentation stock, garlic, chili oil, etc., retaining the original flavor. However, its shelf life is only about a week at room temperature, which means that the product must race against time from the factory to the hands of consumers. To this end, Ooooo Food has established a daily fresh distribution system covering the entire island: the factory produces the products on the same day and loads the trucks on the same day, and delivers them immediately to major farmers' markets and distribution centers in Hainan.

Changes in the scale of distribution record the pace of growth of the company and also reflect the popularity of vinegar products. Zeng Weikang said that at the beginning of production in 2021, delivery relied on the private cars of some employees; in 2022, the company deployed the first delivery vehicle; in 2023, it increased to 5 vehicles; in 2025, it reached 10 vehicles; and now the delivery fleet has expanded to 12 vehicles, achieving daily fresh delivery across the island of Hainan. It is planned to add 5 to 8 more vehicles by the end of the year and "strive to deliver to every township."

At the same time, companies are also exploring product forms with longer shelf life. For foreign markets and online channels, the company has launched bagged solid dregs vinegar and dregs vinegar seafood rice noodles. These products are sterilized and have a longer shelf life. Zeng Weikang revealed that the cumulative sales of the single product "Seafood Rice Noodles with Dregs and Vinegar" have exceeded one million packs, and the annual growth rate has remained between 30% and 40%.

In April this year, the company's second-phase factory in Leiming Town was officially opened, further releasing production capacity. Zeng Weikang said that Ooooo Food is planning the third phase of the factory plan, which will build a vinegar production base that integrates industrial, cultural tourism and research experience, with a planned annual production capacity of 100,000 tons.

The word "dregs" inevitably makes people take the word literally, but Zeng Weikang said with a smile: "This dregs is the real essence." Zeng Weikang believes that this kind of "fishermen's sour soup" that "takes one sip and makes you want to have a second one, and one bowl and another bowl" is expected to be upgraded from a local snack to a national-level hot pot base.

While deeply exploring the Hainan market, companies are also beginning to try to go global. Zeng Weikang said that through the e-commerce platform, "Puqian Sanpo" vinegar has reached most provinces across the country, and is especially popular in the three northeastern provinces. In addition, products are also exported in small quantities to the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore and other places. Although the current export scale is not large, it proves the acceptance of Hainan vinegar by overseas consumers. As the production capacity of new factories is gradually released, overseas layout will be further accelerated, and companies will give priority to the North American and EU markets. (over)