Written by: Zhang Qinghua
Posted on: May 29, 2018 | 
| 中文
Halimuhamet's Nang Rooster and Horse
Steam keeps rising from a newly erected building located in the Entrepreneurship and Employment Incubation Park of Subutai Town, Nileke County, Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture of Xinjiang, China. A grand workshop is being held on the first floor of the building, with 15 baking ovens for Nang bread, traditional flour-made bread made by Muslims in Xinjiang. This is the Nang bread factory, cooperatively established by villagers from Subutai Town, with a brand name of, “Beinamu Nang.”
Mr. Halimuhamet Nurjang, president of the cooperation, is engaged in a business discussion with customers. It was under his leadership that the Nang factory was established a couple of years ago alongside 28 poverty-stricken households in the village, with the hope that they could shake off their poverty and become prosperous.
In his fifties, Halimuhamet was a farmer of Yukamaili Village of Subutai Town, with six years of experience running a small booth of home-made Nang bread. Four years ago, he created a new product made of local flour, eggs and milk, which was well received by local residents and visitors. Travellers would come to his stall especially to buy some for their friends and relatives.
Starting with two or three hundred breads every day, he gradually began to sell three thousand Nang’s in a day. Discovering this as a good business opportunity, Halimuhamet soon took the lead in setting up the cooperation, with Benamu registered as a brand. Very soon, eight new products, such as Nang bread with honey, almond and oil were developed.
The sale soon increased as the brand name spread far and wide. Benamu Nang’s were sold to both local and national markets such as Urumqi, Karamay and even Shenzhen in Guangdong Province. At best, they sold eight thousand Nangs, or at least three thousand on average per day. Halimuhamet explains the reason why their Nangs are so liked by the customers, “Flour here is made from wheat, and is grown in the arid lands with no pollution at all, which makes it hard to chew but sweet in taste.”
What he is most proud of is the Golden Rooster Nang he baked, which was sold for 58,000 yuan at an exhibition. This turned him into a “celebrity,” drawing major media attention for his brand. It all began when Halimuhamet was trying his best to boost the reputation of Benamu Nang, and one of his Han friends offered a suggestion, “Why don’t you make a rooster Nang in celebration of the coming lunar year of Rooster?” Inspired by this idea, Halimuhamet and his younger brother, who owned a farmer-house restaurant, started experimenting. 12 days later, a Golden Rooster Nang was finally launched. With the success of the first innovation, he soon developed a Heaven Horse Nang and Gourd Nang.
At the 7th Urumqi International Food Expo, held in May 2017, Halimuhamet and his artistic Nang got nationwide attention. “Some hundred thousand people come to take pictures with my Nangs every day,” says Halimuhamet. Halimuhamet was really excited and to his great surprise, a lady from inland China took the bid, and paid 58,000 yuan to buy the Golden Rooster.
“I never thought that an artistic Nang would be worth that much money.” Afterwards, a reputed food company in Urumqi called, and expressed their wish of cooperating with Benamu. Back in his hometown, he made another Rooster Nang and displayed it with the Heaven Horse Nang at the shop. “Someone offered 50,000 for the ‘Horse’ but I didn't sell it,” Halimuhamet says. Since it wasn’t easy to make these artistic Nangs, he just wanted more people to see his effort and hard work.
In the factory workshop, standing by the huge baking oven in his white gown, 31 year old Aishanjang Hairula skillfully puts each of the raw Nangs onto the inner wall of the oven. It isn’t long before the amazing smell of cooked bread spreads throughout the workshop. He then adeptly picks out the hot crispy Nangs with a hook. Aishanjang has fifteen years of Nang-baking experience and joined the cooperation 3 years ago. With the expansion of the business, his pay has increased accordingly.
There are 37 employees in the cooperation, of which the 7 males are responsible for baking, while the 30 females are responsible for dough making and packaging.
Halimuhamet says all of them are from poverty-stricken families. With present sale scale of 3000 to 8000 Nangs every day, their daily turnover is around 9000 yuan to 24000 yuan.
The Cooperation moved to a new factory house at the end of last year which was provided by the local government free of charge, in addition to other principal supports. Presently, they are setting up a 2000-ton flour processing factory, to further enlarge the scale of cooperation. It is expected that a special Nang-baking street will be established to enrol more villagers who want to join the business.
“We are applying for QS certification now and with the QS, we can expand our sales network via the Internet. With our arid-land flour Nang selling to bigger markets and more places in China, we want to bring benefits to more villagers with increased incomes,” Halimuhamet is confident about the prospects of the Benamu Nang.
Translated by Wu Jinying
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