On November 6th, the 16th Belt and Road Eco-Agriculture and Food Safety Forum was successfully held in Shanghai as a concurrent event of the 6th China International Import Expo. The forum was hosted by the State Administration for Market Regulation and co-organized by the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Regulation, the Development Research Center of the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the Secretariat of the Belt and Road Eco-Agriculture and Food Safety Forum. Gu Lei, Chief Impact Officer of McDonald’s China, attended the opening ceremony of the forum and delivered a speech.
Gu Lei, Chief Impact Officer of McDonald’s China, delivered a speech
Esteemed leaders, distinguished guests, and fellow corporate colleagues,
Good morning to all!
I am Gu Lei from McDonald’s China. Thank you to the hosts for inviting me, and I am thrilled to engage in this exchange with you. McDonald’s has been in China’s mainland market for over 30 years, and it has now become our second-largest and fastest-growing global market. As of October 2023, McDonald’s China boasts over 5600 restaurants, serving more than a billion customers annually. Our goal is to become ‘stronger, better, and smarter,’ aiming to reach 10,000 restaurants by 2028.
In recent years, the digital economy has seen robust growth, making digitization a new engine for high-quality development across various sectors. McDonald’s has proactively embraced this trend. By leveraging digitalization, we enhance technology-driven food safety management across our entire chain, ensuring steady and proactive progress.
Digital empowerment deepens the awareness of food safety at the industry chain's source. McDonald’s China sources nearly 300 types of ingredients each year, with over 90% being locally sourced or produced, backed by a complex and extensive network of agricultural production, processing, and supply. We ensure our partners across the entire chain work in tandem with us, efficiently facilitated through digital methods.
We’ve established a Supply Chain Academy, utilizing online platforms and digital tools to develop online training courses for suppliers at various stages, ensuring their alignment and compliance with McDonald’s high standards and strict requirements.
In March 2023, McDonald’s China, in collaboration with nine major suppliers, initiated the ‘McDonald’s China Regenerative Agriculture Program.’ Together with suppliers and Chinese farmers, we cultivate fresh, safe, and natural ingredients for consumers, aiding the acceleration of green, low-carbon agriculture. Over the next five years, we plan to share agricultural knowledge, technology, and experience predominantly digitally, providing long-term regenerative agriculture training to over 2000 key farmers and agricultural managers in our supply chain, benefiting more than 20,000 farmers.
Digital empowerment increases the quality and efficiency of agricultural product production management. For instance, in potato farming, digital tools are used for soil moisture monitoring, pest and disease early warning, and fertilizer management, making drip irrigation more precise and water-efficient, pest control more predictive, and fertilization more scientific.
Digital empowerment ensures the visibility, traceability, and manageability of food safety in logistics. McDonald’s employs a central control system for unified management of logistics centers, enabling real-time tracking of inventory management. Coupled with digital technology, we have established a comprehensive cold chain and strengthened food safety monitoring with a full traceability system. We adhere to McDonald’s global distribution center quality management standards, ensuring comprehensive control over food safety. Our warehouses are equipped with 24-hour uninterrupted temperature control and high-temperature alarm systems, along with emergency plans and response mechanisms, ensuring the integrity of the cold chain. Our logistics distribution, combined with full-temperature control, maintains appropriate temperatures during transportation, storage, and sorting, ensuring the quality and nutrition of our food.
Digital empowerment doubles the effectiveness of restaurant food safety management. We have developed new functions and processes on our proprietary food safety digital management platform, deepening the digital upgrade of our self-inspection mechanisms. This year, we established a unified system for evaluating restaurant food safety performance, generating a monthly food safety index for each restaurant, providing a comprehensive representation of each restaurant’s food safety status, and a novel management tool. Through this index, food safety managers can easily understand the safety levels and conditions of each restaurant. We also plan to upgrade our digital food safety management platform to connect the restaurant food safety index with various internal digital management systems, enhancing refined management efficiency and risk prevention capabilities.
Monitoring and inspecting the food safety execution status of over 5600 restaurants daily is a complex task. We have developed a proprietary digital food safety management platform to assist restaurants in completing daily food safety operations and promptly uploading operational data. Restaurant managers can track food safety execution in real-time online and receive early warnings for any food safety anomalies. The digital platform ensures data authenticity and completeness, automatically categorizing and analyzing food safety issues to aid restaurants in making improvements.
Digitalization brings new meaning to productivity, extensively applied at every stage from farm to table. We believe that digital empowerment for high-quality food and agricultural product development requires a commitment to long-term and sustained investment. With the guidance and support of government departments and through digital empowerment, we are confident that together with our partners, we can assure consumers of safe, high-quality food and agricultural products!
Thank you, everyone!
The theme of the forum is, ‘Deepening the Belt and Road Cooperation in Agriculture and Food: Jointly Creating a Better Life for Humanity.’ Leaders from the State Administration for Market Regulation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, National Health Commission, General Administration of Customs, as well as leaders from Shanghai, Henan, Hainan, and other provincial governments, representatives of provincial market supervision departments, representatives of relevant United Nations organizations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and embassies of South Africa, the Netherlands, Colombia, Sri Lanka, Bulgaria, Tanzania, Senegal, among others, along with over 400 delegates from domestic and international enterprises, participated in the forum. Guests collectively deliberated on agricultural cooperation and food industry development, contributing insights and strategies for the high-quality development of agriculture and food industries in the Belt and Road Initiative, highlighting the role of the forum as a platform for policy interpretation.
2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the proposal of the Belt and Road Initiative and the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Eco-Agriculture and Food Safety Forum. Over the past decade, the forum has been successfully held for 15 sessions within the framework of the National Food Safety Publicity Week and the China International Import Expo. The forum has solidly promoted high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road, extensively conducted exchanges and cooperation in the agricultural and food industries, played a significant role in the development and safety of agricultural food industries in the countries along the route, and facilitated smooth international trade among the Belt and Road countries.
