January 9, 2008

Chongqing to invest US$34 million in pig breeding operations

The Chongqing Municipal Government will invest RMB250 million (US$34.4 million) in live pig standardized breeding in 2008 to guarantee pork supply in the Municipality.

The government's fund injection aims to attract more than RMB1 billion of social capital to develop standardised pig breeding.

The pig output in the Municipality is expected to increase by 1 million heads in 2008, with the Municipality's total live pig output hitting 21 million heads.

Twenty five districts in the municipality also announced in a new agreement with Changjiang Agricultural, Industrial and Commercial (CAIC) Group to set up an intergrated hog production chain that would double the districts' pig output to 6 million heads by 2012.

CAIC is a state-structured company formerly known as Chongqing Nongken Bureau. The group possesses one of the largest stocks of PIC breeds in Asia. CAIC would help local farmers start hog rearing operations on a contractual basis.