The consumption world is unpredictable, and it is also interesting. The popularity of a pack of snacks can open up a corner of the trend of the times. Workers who want to eat snacks and feel guilty about high calorie are holding an inconspicuous food into a "money printing machine".

It is called "konjac". What is as magical as the name is that this year, its raw material prices have increased by more than gold and the badminton that has been hotly discussed recently.

The more eye-catching record is that it helped the stock prices of three listed companies soar:

Weilong's spicy strip business line is getting old, relying on "konjac refreshing" to drive performance growth. Its stock price was less than HK$7 per share in January 2025, and rose to HK$17 per share in May, an increase of 142%. Yanjinpuzi also relied on konjac to boost performance. Its stock price was still 64 yuan per share in early January 2025. As of May 7, the stock price was 89 yuan per share, an increase of 39%.

Upstream companies seem to have greater dividends. The konjac deep processing company is "uniform konjac". The company is not large in scale, but the stock price has increased significantly. It was still 7 yuan per share in early September 2024, but it rose to 59 yuan per share in April 2025, an increase of 742%. As of May 7, the stock price was 49 yuan per share.

Why did the little konjac suddenly "rule the world"? Have the workers paid wrongly for eating konjac snacks for low-calorie?

01 Prices for categories tripled

Konjac, also known as konjac (jǔ ruò), is a shade-loving plant. With its rich glucomannan, a natural ingredient with high dietary fiber and low calories, it conforms to the dietary trend of modern people. It is in the form of "konjac tofu" and "konjac silk" in the diet and in the snack industry, it has penetrated at an astonishing speed in recent years.

This plant is not tolerant of high temperature and strong light and is mainly distributed in China, Japan, Indonesia and other regions. my country is the core production area of ​​konjac in the world, with the Wuling Mountains, Qinba Mountains and Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau as the three main production areas.

Zhang Shusong is a local konjac grower in Guizhou. This year, he received more calls from customers. He had just chatted for more than 10 minutes and several calls were occupied on his mobile phone. He told Phoenix Finance that starting from 2024, konjac will be in short supply. The white konjac he mainly planted rose from 6,000 yuan/ton to 9,500 yuan/ton in 2024, an increase of 58%.

Zhang Shusong said that his colleagues around him are expanding their planting. He is also collecting land in the countryside. Considering the size of funds, he currently only plans to expand the scale of planting by 50%.

Gu Peng, founder and general manager of the Konjac Family, felt this passion even more deeply. Its company's business includes both konjac planting and deep processing of konjac, product research and development and sales. He introduced that from 2016 to 2019, the price of konjac has been rising, but during the epidemic, there was an oversupply of konjac and the market price has dropped significantly. The previous price "was at least 6,000 yuan/ton, but the price of konjac has fallen until the end of 2023, and it was only about 4,000 yuan/ton, which was the price level before 2016, and the price could not be lower."

Source/Open Source Securities Report

Low prices have reduced farmers' enthusiasm for planting, resulting in "the scale of planting has shrunk significantly in the past two years," Gu Peng said.

At the same time, according to the report "Special Research on China's Konjac Market in 2025-2030" released by the China Report Hall, on the supply side, the national konjac planting area has shrunk by 23% for three consecutive years in recent years, and the combined drought has resulted in a 15% reduction in yield, and raw materials are in short supply.

Konjac is another category with not low planting difficulty and a long planting cycle. Zhang Shusong mentioned that it will take more than half a year to plant in April this year and harvest will not be available in the end of December. This has caused supply and demand to exceed demand in 2024 when the demand for konjac suddenly rises.

Gu Peng recalled that domestic fresh konjac soared in the short term in 2024, from 4,000 yuan/ton to 8,000 yuan/ton, doubled. The price of bead-bud konjac imported from Indonesia has increased from 3,000 yuan/ton to 10,000 yuan/ton, tripling.

Under high demand, many practitioners began to grow and import konjac from Indonesia. Gu Peng has opened a production base in Indonesia in recent years. He introduced that the cost of planting and labor in Indonesia is half that of the domestic one, and it may have an impact on the domestic konjac market in the future.

02 Who brought the hot konjac

The price of konjac is highly correlated with demand. While the production side shrinks, what makes the demand side of konjac rise sharply?

Taking stock of the process of konjac becoming popular, Wei Long, the "King of Spicy Stripes" "makes an indelible contribution". Although it accounts for half of the spicy strips, Wei Long, who has always been criticized for his high calorie and unhealthy products, and "save the country through curves", has made "konjac refreshment" popular. The sound of "low calories" in the elevator is repeated, and the magical brainwashing is once complained by netizens, but it also successfully developed the product mind.

According to Weilong's financial report, in 2018, the performance of vegetable products such as konjac was only 10%, but by 2024, the revenue of the vegetable products sector, mainly konjac, reached 3.371 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 59.1%, and the revenue share exceeded 50% for the first time, surpassing spicy strips, reaching 53.8%.

Other snack brands are also eyeing konjac refreshment.

In terms of Yanjinpuzi, its revenue contributed to 838 million yuan in 2024, an increase of 76% year-on-year. In terms of sales volume, 36,600 tons were sold in 2024, an increase of 66.9% year-on-year. Its large single product, "seed sauce tripe", achieved monthly sales of over 100 million in March this year.

After Liangpinpu’s konjac refreshment was listed on Douyin e-commerce in October 2023, its monthly sales once reached 6 million. According to Jinzai Food's 2024 financial report, its vegetable product production volume was 2,980 tons, an increase of 35.98% over the same period last year, mainly due to the increase in sales of konjac products.

In this craze, jelly and tea drinks are also fueling the fire.

Source/Open Source Securities Report

Konjac Q bombs can be used as jelly, and in this field it is more commonly used the name "konjac". This ancient name has been passed down to Japan and has become the title of Japanese konjac products. Domestic konjac jelly has also been used as a result of Japanese snack products. While traditional jelly is outdated in ingredients and tastes, snack brands Kizhiro, Crayon Shin-shirt and Liuliumei have launched konjac jelly products in recent years, which are more in line with the current healthy fat-reducing trend.

There is a ingredient in the tea beverage industry called konjac crystal balls, which are made of konjac. Compared with pearls made of cassava flour, it has a more flexible taste. Brands such as Mixue Bingcheng use "konjac crystal balls" as milk tea ingredients, which can be used as a substitute for traditional pearls and also cater to the consumption trend of "low-card".

Uni-Konjac is a small material supplier for tea brands such as Mixue Bingcheng and Shanghai Auntie. According to the financial report, its revenue of konjac food in 2024 increased by 63.22% year-on-year. In 2024, its revenue was 617 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.76%, and its net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 86.7 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 64.41%. Perhaps it is because of the rare listed company in the konjac field that has received the dividends of konjac, but the stock price increase of 742% is still terrifying and puzzling.

03 The left and right calories fight each other

So, is the calories of these konjac products as low as the publicity says?

Phoenix Finance randomly purchased Weilong, Yanjinpuzi, Baiguoyuan brand konjac, and Liuliu plum frozen products.

According to the ingredients list, the energy per 100 grams of Weilong spicy "konjac refreshing", Yanjinpuzi "samari vegetarian tripe" and Baicaowei "konjac "dairy tripe" are 514 kJ, 748 kJ and 480 kJ, respectively. According to public information, a bowl of 100 grams of cooked rice has a calories of about 485 kJ, which is mostly more than the same weight of rice.

The calories of konjac flour are indeed low, but because there are other additives in the ingredients, such as Weilong, vegetable oil, white sugar, MSG, etc., Yanjinpuzi contains sesame paste, peanut butter, Baicaowei contains edible corn starch, edible tapioca starch, etc., all increase a certain amount of calories.

At the same time, the sodium content of this type of product is generally high. The above-mentioned konjac products of Weilong, Yanjinpuzi and Baicaowei contain 1254 mg, 1135 mg, and 1586 mg of sodium for every 100 grams, and the NRV% is 63%, 57%, and 79%, respectively.

The daily intake of sodium intake of no more than 2000 mg. NRV% indicates that the nutrients contained in foods with "every hundred unit value" account for the percentage of nutrients needed by the human body. This means that every 100 grams of konjac refreshment, the sodium content in it accounts for 60% to 70% of the human body needs a day. The weight of a pack of Weilong konjac is about 18g. In other words, the daily sodium intake of eating seven or eight packs of konjac can exceed the standard. In short, there is too much salt.

Because the product contains additives such as red oil, there are more fat. The above three brands of konjac are 9.6 grams, 16 grams and 8 grams of fat per 100 grams. This is higher in fat than lean pork of the same weight. Public information shows that 100 grams of lean pork contains about 6.2 grams of fat.

At the same time, the calories of this type of product are actually not the standard "low calories". According to the General Rules for Pre-packaged Food Nutrition Labeling of National Food Safety Standards, in the requirements and conditions of "content claim" of energy and nutritional components, the low energy range is that solids need to be less than or equal to 170 kJ for every 100 g, and liquids need to be less than or equal to 80 kJ for every 100 g.

From this perspective, the above products have exceeded the standard. On the complaint platform, some consumers complained about Weilong and Yanjinpuzi’s konjac, believing that it has false propaganda and that the publicity is “low calories” and the actual calories are not within the range marked above.

However, Phoenix Finance observed that in addition to mentioning "low calories" in the advertisement, the words "low calories" are not actually marked in the packaging of products such as Weilong and Yanjinpuzi. I just played a strait in advertising. After all, "low calories" is a relative concept. Compared with spicy strips, the calories are indeed low.

In short, konjac is a product like konjac itself with lower calories, but the seasonings added during processing increase calories.

Gu Zhongyi, a director of the Beijing Nutritionist Association and nutritionist, once posted an analysis of the ingredients for konjac refreshment, and also mentioned the problem of excessive sodium content. At the same time, he said that this dietary fiber thing is not the better the more you eat. Since konjac flour will swell after absorbing water, be especially careful. When eating, you should not pour a large packet of konjac flour into your mouth and then drink water. This can cause esophageal or intestinal obstruction.

In terms of konjac jelly, the amount of konjac powder added to Liuliu Plum and Kizhilang Konjac jelly is ≥0.5% and ≥0.16% respectively. Although some of these jelly products have a huge "konjac" written on the packaging, konjac may be just an auxiliary ingredient, so it is even more difficult to mention the health and wellness effects. w

It has become a consensus that milk tea contains high calorie and high sugar. Adding konjac crystal to this type of product may only choose the lightest of two harms in high calorie products, creating a psychological comfort for greedy workers.

04 Beware of bad money driving out good money

Regardless of whether the calories have decreased or not, anyway, under the advertisement, workers who eat konjac will always feel less guilty. In 2024, the retail sales of konjac snacks in my country exceeded 12 billion yuan, with an annual growth of more than 20%, making it a phenomenon-level category in the field of snack foods.

Gu Peng introduced that konjac has always been a small category before, and it is difficult to plant, and it is still a traditional model of "relying on the weather to make a living". The domestic investment in R&D of seed technology is not high, resulting in the seed disease resistance needs to be improved and the yield is unstable, which has led to the industry being relatively dispersed at the upstream end and weak risk resistance.

At the same time, midstream processing enterprises are scattered, and currently only one related listed company is consistent with konjac, with low industry concentration. Although the downstream market has promoted the explosion of snack consumption due to brands such as Weilong and Yanjinpuzi, consumer perception is still limited.

If konjac cannot break through technical bottlenecks, such as variety improvement, and establish a full-chain standardization system from seeds to dining tables, market growth will be subject to raw material supply and quality fluctuations.

What worries Gu Peng is that the konjac market is currently showing bad money driving out good money.

He mentioned that some consumers are still unfamiliar with the taste of konjac. In the process of rapid development of konjac, the shortage of raw materials has led to an increase in costs, and the product side has shown a phenomenon of inferior products as good ones, which has affected consumers' judgment on the taste of konjac.

He gave an example. Last year, a niche brand launched a popular single product of "dry konjac", which was imitated by other merchants, but in order to save costs, adding starch to "dry konjac" or using poor konjac flour affected the taste and affected consumers' enthusiasm for "dry konjac". The result is that "it may have been possible to cultivate a brand with sales of hundreds of millions, but it ended up selling for only tens of millions of dollars, which is a pity."

In addition, he introduced that some businesses will add carrageenan to konjac tofu, which is a hydrophilic colloid extracted from red algae seaweed and is also a food additive. Although it will not affect the human body, the "soft taste" will also affect consumers' judgment of the taste of konjac.

This type of addition actually offsets the low-calorie advantage that konjac originally had.

This phenomenon of "bad money drives out good money" affects the long-term development of the industry, and the influx of capital promotes the industry's popularity and also intensifies speculative behavior.

Consumers' preferences also change in trends. Driven by konjac and new tea drinks, konjac has become a hot commodity. It is still difficult to know how long this wind can last. The natural characteristics of konjac, such as long-lasting and long-lasting, have irreplaceable advantages. However, if merchants use the banner of low-calorie health for konjac, but add a large amount of high-calorie flavoring to food, this inverted approach will actually make the product lose its low-calorie advantage.

In a growing situation, "Don't rot the good things," Gu Peng reminded.

(Zhang Shusong is a pseudonym in the article.)

[Editor in charge: Xie Wei PF123]