June 11, 2020

 

China to buildmore swine farms near cities

 

China reverses previous policies to relocate livestock farms away from urban areas over waste issues as the government focuses on boosting domestic production after the African swine fever (ASF) outbreak decimated its swine herds, Reuters reported.

 

The country's swine herd is expected to rise by about 200 million swine through the construction of new swine farms throughout China.

 

However, the new farms located in suburbs of major cities incur high costs to prevent issues such as farm run-off leaking into water and soil. These issues resulted in the government relocating livestock farms from 2015 to 2017.

 

Sifanghong Agriculture and Animal Husbandry aims to build 11 farms raising 60,000 swine annually in Beijing's outskirts at Pinggu district, 70 km away from the city.

Major China swine producer New Hope Liuhe also plans to construct a multi-storey farm in Pinggu with an estimated 150,000 swine raised annually. The Beijing municipal government said a further six farms are being expanded or rebuilt.

 

China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs did not respond to Reuters for comments regarding changes to the country's swine farm policy.

 

China's government is focused on food security, with boosting pork supplies crucial after record high pork prices pushed the country's inflation last year. Every region, province and municipality in China must now retain a certain level of swine production.

 

Wang Lisheng, a China economist at Nomura International said this is an amendment to previous policies, that the country's policymakers are diversifying risk.

 

Beijing's 20 million population requires 890,000 swine raised annually by 2022 to only fulfil a 10th of the area's pork needs. This is three times the number of swine raised in 2019.

 

To meet these plans, suitable sites for new farms were selected by the city government, with companies invited to bid for plots. This new process streamlined procedures to scout for pig raising land.

 

Other cities are also boosting swine production. Nanjing city is constructing 12 swine farms to push swine output four times higher compared to 2018. Zhejiang province aims to increase swine production by 50% more than from 2018.

 

Swine farms near urban areas may reverse a prior national campaign to clean the environment. This campaign closed 200,000 small farms located near water bodies and populated areas, and promoted construction of large-scale farms in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia. These areas have few people and more land.

 

-      Reuters