Nansha has emerged as an aggregator for exports of precooked meals, leveraging its advantage as a key port in the country. The exports base is also the nation's first "one-stop" export service platform for precooked food.

"Nansha's biggest asset isn't being a manufacturer of precooked food, but being an intermediary that streamlines exports by integrating resources," says Li, who is also general manager of Guangzhou Xueyin Group — a representative company specializing in exporting ready-made meals.

The practice is akin to overseas consumers securing products from e-commerce platforms. They would assemble consolidated shipments, enabling shippers to share the cost of long-haul shipping which has proven to be a boon for ready-meal food makers.

Guangzhou Xueyin is also the operator of Nansha District Prepared Food Industrial Park.

Established in April 2022, the base has been collaborating with 88 buyers from 20 countries, and has set up an international precooked food procurement alliance.

At the inaugural Pre-cooked Food Export Forum held at the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Pre-cooked Food (Nansha) Export Base, Guangzhou Xueyin won precooked food orders worth $1 billion with 12 other companies. The orders were mainly from Europe, the US and Southeast Asia, covering various categories of products like precooked aquatic, poultry and vegetarian dishes.

In 2023, Nansha produced more than 3-billion-yuan ($412-million) worth of precooked food in collaboration with nine enterprises, each generating revenues of over 100 million yuan — representing a year-on-year growth of 135 percent.

In late 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs recognized Nansha as a pilot zone for agricultural opening-up and cooperation.

Targeting overseas Chinese supermarkets and restaurants, Nansha's precooked food industry has established xueyinfood.com — a trade platform linking 11 Guangdong industrial parks with more than 100 others nationwide, as well as 1,000 export factories.

Early last year, a New Zealand firm clinched a 30-million-yuan deal with Nansha to export New Year dishes to the Oceania nation.