January 9, 2024

 

How China's pig breeding sector shapes up since 2018 ASF outbreak

 

China's total number of core pig breeding farms increased by 12 in 2022, a 12% increase, according to government evaluation results which tallied 104 core breeding farms and eight boar breeding farms from 27 provinces and municipalities.

 

As of August 2023, the inventory of conceivable sows in the farms increased from 150,000 head to more than 190,000 head.

 

In 2021, China imported 27,900 breeding pigs, which are capable of producing one million parent-stock pigs. This was only a fraction of China's inventory of 35-40 million ‘two-way' crossbred sows.

 

As for nucleus breeder farms, the first 16 such farms were established in China in 2010 for cross-breeding. By 2013, there were 74 such farms.

 

Following the African swine fever (ASF) outbreak in 2018, China's pig breeder industry expanded rapidly over the past years. In 2018, there were five pig breeding companies with an annual release volume of one million pigs, accounting for only 7.81% of Chinese total hog production. Entering 2020, there were nine pig breeding companies of such scale, releasing pigs that accounted for 19.86% of China's pig production volume.

 

Last year, there were 28 breeding companies, whose output accounted for 37.57% of the total number of pigs sold in China.

 

By the end of 2022, the combined population of breeding sows from 28 large pig companies accounted for 24.87% of China's total sow numbers.

 

During the ASF outbreak, many large companies expanded breeder units and acquired breeder pigs and piglets from overseas or in China to replenish their pens. In recent years, all pig farms have been looking to cut operation costs, hence motivating large pig companies to build or expand breeding farms.

 

Currently, Muyuan has established a system to use two-way crossbred breeders to sustain its breeding efficiency. The company also acquired land area to support the production of 100 million pigs.

 

Wen's no longer imports breeding pigs from overseas on a large scale and only imports a small number of purebred breeder pigs. It has established a system that can produce 30 million commercial pigs. Wen's aims to establish a system to produce 80 million pigs annually.

 

In general, China's large-scale pig producers have increasingly integrated breeding and commercial pig farming, and this is set to become the country's main breeding model in the future.

 

- Shi Tao, eFeedlink