Professor Li Dongsen is a professor at Henan University of Technology, China. From 1977-1981 he studied at the Grain Engineering Department of Zhengzhou Grain Institute (now formally known as the Henan University of Technology). From 1981-2017, he has taught students about grains and oil as part of the Food College within Henan University of Technology. He has been engaged in teaching, scientific research and technology development within cereal sciences and engineering. Professor Dongsen has also served as Deputy Secretary General of the China Wheat Association.
Professor Dongsen also serves as the Founder and Chairman of Zhengzhou Gold Grain Mechanical Engineering Co Ltd.
How did you come to be involved in this industry?
Entry into this industry was, initially, a national necessity. I was born in 1957 and was one of the first batch of students admitted, after the resumption of the college entrance exam in China. Due to various reasons, my admission notice was sent late, and I was finally able, after a short delay, to enter Zhengzhou Grain University to study. Although entering this industry was originally arranged by the state, I still feel a sense of pride as a witness of the development of China’s flour industry over the past three or four decades.
What do you see as a possible challenge that the grain industry may face over the next five years and how will your company play a part in prevention or solving it?
From the perspective of the grain processing industry and the development of the Chinese flour industry, it can be concluded that flour-based innovations are only relevant for a short time before new innovations are required to keep up with the technology. This seems to be an ongoing situation and I, personally, think there are a few topics that we need to think about over the next few years:
Product development: Domestic flour competition is very fierce, as in the buyer’s market there has been an issue with oversupplying for many years. Short-term, enterprises must conduct in-depth research on product development and comprehensively consider the market demand, their own advantages and their own technological skills. This is also the professional advantage of our company. We will help customers avoid mistakes in product development as much as possible, through conducting analysis with our unique solutions.
Personnel training mechanisms: For the grain industry, the key to developing lasting development plans and whether enterprises can continue to grow is having the right people. Retaining talent and setting up the training for this talent can prove challenging for many small and medium-sized flour enterprises. My experience as a teacher has resulted in Zhengzhou Golden Grain recognising this talent and knowing how to best promote this growth. Our company also provides a role similar to industry headhunting. Every time we discuss plans with our customers, we will also offer some suggestions regarding the enterprise’s personnel structure.
Intelligent manufacturing: The last five years have seen the dramatic evolution of 5G development. 5G is a new starting point for technology, and it is exciting to think about the opportunities and challenges that this network revolution may bring.
For the industrial field, 5G will bring a huge impact once it is popularised. It is possible to bring revolutionary influences to the production efficiency of enterprises, once 5G can be utilised in product production.
Our company is also building its own Internet of Things (IoT) platform. Through its existing electrical automation, we can add more sensors to our solutions to provide certain reference for big data analysis. In a later stage, we will also conduct in-depth research on the application of intelligent manufacturing.
The impact of genetic modification (GM) technology: GM may not be a challenge per se, but it may be one of the most important transformative factors for the future of flour. Although the risks associated with GM are different, it can be said that GM technology itself is the inevitable next step to ensure human survival and development in the future.
With complete decoding of a genetic map of grain, it can be expected that there will be more genetically modified grain products in the future, which will bring profound changes to the production of the grain processing industry. This new evolution is certainly something which Zhengzhou Golden Grain are paying great attention to.
How has China’s flour industry developed in recent years?
The development of China’s flour industry is difficult to generalise. Since the reform in the 1980s, there has been much phased development taking place. First of all, after the reform, the market economy began to eliminate some state-owned enterprises. Due to the change of the market demand structure, the domestic grains market was opened up and the price of wheat decreased for some time, and the profit gained from produce rose. In the main wheat producing areas, tens of thousands of new flour milling companies emerged. According to the statistics, in 2010, there were nearly 40,000 flour processing enterprises in China, among which there were more than 200 large and medium-sized flour processing enterprises with a wheat processing capacity above 400 tonnes-per-day (tpd).
After China’s entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) the price of wheat and the profit made within the flour milling industry was almost zero. These conditions made it inevitable to readjust the flour market in China. This readjustment will take several years but will further improve each and every link within the industry chain, ranging from farmers, to depots, processing plants all the way through to the final production factory. Eventually we hope China can form a group of large flour milling enterprises that is resilient against risks sand fluctuations, to efficiently and securely serve the Chinese market.
What makes your company stand out from its competitors? Do you have any projects or plans that we should look out for over the coming year from you and your company?
For Zhengzhou Golden Grain, the most important factor in what makes us unique is our understanding of the processing technology itself. Our impressive industry experience has given us great support when development new innovations. Other product development and talent training services are inseparable from this core advantage.
Of course, the development of our company is also a result of how the living standard of the Chinese people has greatly improved. The food market in China is based upon grain as a staple food. New trends are emerging constantly, ranging from convenience to the concept of leisure food.
Zhengzhou Golden Grain is dedicated to the continuous research and improvement of the comprehensive flour milling process, to take on any and all opportunities for development within the market. Despite the fierce competition among grain machine equipment manufacturers, our company has been able to survive. This is, in part, due to our continuous research regarding flour milling.
Over the course of the next year, we will continue to play to our unique advantages to bolster growth. We will continue to provide our customers with the most advanced processing designs and concepts, providing high-performance products. At the same time, we will focus on software and launch software products that can improve production efficiency, combined with 5G innovations.
What are you most proud of since founding Zhengzhou Golden Grain?
Personally, I am proud that I have witnessed the evolution of China’s flour industry, from being somewhat unorthodox in its production methods to becoming a leading flour producing country. As one of the participants in this evolution, I have left my own mark in this development of the industry.
From the perspective of entrepreneurship, our company has developed into a solution supplier for the food industry, offering such a great variety of solutions for all manner of processes. I think our company contributes to the development of society and improves society as a whole.
I am also very proud of our ability to train our personnel, producing professional engineers, marketing teams and more. This is the biggest driving force of our company’s pride.
