Seven experts called for paying attention to supporting the development of rice oil industry and improving the self-sufficiency rate of edible oil in China
Harbin, China Economic Net, July 6 (Reporter Wu Xuan) One of the reasons that have restricted the development of rice oil in China for many years is that rice bran is easy to rancidity and difficult to preserve. Now this technical bottleneck has made a new breakthrough. Yihai Kerry, the parent company of Arowana, has created a brand-new rice oil production model of decentralized preservation, centralized collection and centralized refining. "The remaining problem now is to study the policies and measures to support the development of rice bran oil industry." Wang Ruiyuan, chief expert of China Cereals and Oils Association and president of the Oil Branch of China Cereals and Oils Association, called on the "Seminar on the Integrated Development of Rice Circular Economy Industry Chain and Rice Oil Industry" held in Harbin on July 6, hoping that the state would pay more attention to the rice oil industry and give support in policies, funds and taxes, so as to accelerate the development of rice oil industry and improve the self-sufficiency rate of edible oil in China. Experts attending the meeting actively put forward suggestions and suggestions on exploring a new model of rice circular economy industrial chain, strengthening the implementation of China’s rice oil series standards, and improving rice oil production technology.
Rice oil, with its balanced nutritional proportion, has the reputation of "golden rice" and is a healthy edible oil recommended by the World Health Organization. In Japan, a big rice producer, the utilization rate of rice bran is nearly 100%. Rice oil has become the designated oil for nutritious lunches of primary and secondary school students in Japan. The production of rice oil in China began in the 1950s, and in the 1970s and 1980s, the work of increasing oil production, represented by the promotion of rice bran and corn germ oil extraction, was carried out nationwide, with remarkable results. However, due to various reasons, the utilization rate of rice bran in China is less than 20%. Most rice bran is used as feed, or even discarded as waste, which is a sad waste of resources. The data shows that the self-sufficiency rate of edible oil in China in 2015-2016 was 32.3%.
Experts believe that as the largest country in rice production and consumption, the nutritional value and resource benefit of rice bran by-products in China have not been fully exerted. If the rice bran, a by-product of rice with an annual output of 200 million tons in China, is used to extract oil, it is equivalent to about 13 million tons of soybean oil, which is equivalent to saving 110 million mu of soybean cultivated land for the country, which will greatly improve the self-sufficiency rate of edible oil in China. Developing rice oil industry is one of the effective ways to improve the self-sufficiency rate of edible oil in China without competing with fertile land. Experts attending the meeting said that actively developing rice oil industry in China is a necessary move for the supply-side structural reform of edible oil processing industry.
At present, there are three main reasons that restrict the development of rice oil in China: first, the rice processing enterprises in China are small and scattered, and it is difficult to concentrate rice bran; Second, rice bran is prone to rancidity and deterioration, and the preservation technology is not easy to solve; Third, the policies and measures to support the development of rice oil industry are not strong enough.
At present, the technical bottleneck has been broken. According to reports, Yihai Kerry, the parent company of Arowana, has created a brand-new production mode of rice oil with decentralized preservation, centralized extraction and centralized refining. It has used a series of advanced production technologies such as 6-hour expansion preservation, low-temperature extraction and internationally advanced green enzymatic degumming, so that natural cereal active nutrients such as oryzanol, vitamins and sterols can be retained to the greatest extent.
Rice bran oil production is an important link of rice circular economy in Yihai Kerry. Since entering the field of rice processing in 2006, Yihai Kerry has started to research and develop a new model of comprehensive utilization of rice. In the past ten years, the accumulated investment has reached several billion yuan, and gradually built a new circular industry model of "order planting-intensive processing-product brand-name-making-comprehensive utilization of by-products-high-tech product research and development". Through the order base, the purity of rice varieties and the quality of arowana rice are guaranteed; At the same time, independently research and develop rice bran preservation technology to improve the yield and quality of arowana rice oil. Fatty acids, rice bran wax, rice bran fat, oryzanol, ferulic acid and other high value-added products extracted from rice bran oil by-products and rice bran meal are widely used in food special oils, grease chemicals, cosmetics and other industries; At the same time, rice husk combustion was realized to generate electricity, and activated carbon and white carbon were prepared from rice husk ash. At present, the rice husk silica produced by Yihai Kerry has achieved cross-industry cooperation with tire production giants and is being popularized and applied worldwide.
Yihai Kerry’s rice circular economy model has truly realized the transformation from the traditional extensive rice processing model to the "eat dry and squeeze clean" processing model with intensive processing and high-efficiency and energy-saving utilization of by-products, which has increased farmers’ rice planting income and increased the added value of rice products, and realized the integration of order agriculture, intensive processing of agricultural products, brand product sales and service. Nowadays, the utilization rate of rice bran in Yihai Kerry rice circular economy model reaches 60-70%, which is much higher than the average ratio of rice bran utilization rate of less than 20% in the whole industry.
Jiang Yuanrong, a researcher at Fengyi (Shanghai) Biotechnology R&D Center Co., Ltd., said that this model can fully develop and utilize the economic value of rice. If it can be replicated and promoted throughout the country, its economic and social benefits will be considerable.
In April 2017, Yihai (Jiamusi) Cereals and Oils Industry Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Yihai Kerry, was officially approved by the National Development and Reform Commission as the "National Pilot Unit for Standardization of Rice Processing Circular Economy", which is the only pilot enterprise in the rice processing industry in China, marking that this global leading rice circular economy model has been incorporated into the national green development plan. "Perfecting and popularizing it will be beneficial to the sustainable development of rice processing and rice oil industry in China." Zhang Guifeng, chairman of China Cereals and Oils Society, fully affirmed Yihai Kerry’s active exploration and practice in the industrial chain mode of rice circular economy.
On October 25th, 2016, at the 3rd ICRBO- International Rice Oil Conference held in Tokyo, Japan, Arowana rice oil from China won unanimous praise from oil experts from China, Japan, India, Thailand and Vietnam, and won the only "International Rice Oil Quality Award" selected by the Conference. The award indicates that China’s independently innovated rice oil production technology has completely surpassed Japanese and advanced the international level.
The 13th Five-Year Development Plan of Grain and Oil Processing Industry formulated by the State Grain Administration proposes to "actively develop rice bran oil", and to "achieve the utilization rate of by-products such as rice bran above 50%" by 2020, and cultivate a number of leading enterprises in the integration of grain and oil processing industry. At this stage, increasing policy support has become a booster to accelerate the integration and development of rice, oil and three industries in China.
The meeting was jointly sponsored by the Oil Branch of China Cereals and Oils Association, the Technical Committee of Oils and Oils of National Cereals and Oils Standardization Technical Committee, and undertaken by Fengyi (Shanghai) Biotechnology R&D Center Co., Ltd. The meeting aims to further promote the development of China’s rice oil industry and deepen the transformation and upgrading of China’s grain processing industry.