An employee makes river snail rice noodles in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, July 25, 2015.[Photo/IC]

The number of instant river snail rice noodle manufacturers has increased from one in early 2015 to more than 50 now. There are more than 1,500 online stores selling the specialty, and it ranks number one in terms of rice noodle sales on Alibaba's e-commerce shopping sites.

Statistics also showed that the online revenue of river snail rice noodle last year surpassed 500 million yuan ($77 million) with daily sale of more than 100,000 packages.

"The river snail rice noodle has developed into a pillar industry in Liuzhou," said Cheng Fangxiao, who added that the processing plants and restaurants related to it have offered jobs for around 60,000 people.

To further boost the industry, Liuzhou government established a special industrial park for it. Seven plants have moved in. It is expected to produce 100,000 packages of such noodles on a daily basis in the second half of this year, with an output value reaching 1.5 billion yuan three years later.