June 24, 2020

DanBred delivers biggest order of pigs to China

DanBred had chartered three cargo aircraft, delivering a total of 2,200 pure bred breeding animals to China at the end of May, the pig breeding company said.

The delivery is the largest Chinese order of breeding pigs to date, DanBred said. Later this year, DanBred will deliver more breeding animals to China.

The 2,200 animals are purebred Landrace, Yorkshire, and Duroc. There are 2,000 young females and 200 boars weighing between 25 and 100 kilos. The breeding animals are hand-picked from four Danish DanBred pig breeders, namely, Brandmosegaard, Grubegaard, Molsgaard and Tybjerggaard.

The pigs were sold to Guilin Liyuan Cereal & Oil Feed Co Ltd., which is about to establish a herd with 20,000 sows in the Guizhou Province, Southwestern China.

"...the DanBred breeding animals will help rebuild the Chinese pig population. In the past couple of years, African swine fever has severely impacted China, and the disease is estimated to have halved China's pig population," said Thomas Muurmann Henriksen, CEO of DanBred.

"Usually, we ship a maximum of 1,000 animals to China a year. This time, we shipped 2,200 breeding animals in one shipment, and we are very proud of the broad collaboration that made it possible," said Thomas O. Hansen, COO of DanBred.

He added: "It is a very large order, and more are coming. China is in the process of rebuilding its pig population, and, as of June 1 this year, we have strengthened our local team in China further with a national sales director and a technical services manager who will help ensure that DanBred gets a share in the high demand we see in China.

"They will also ensure that DanBred's customers in China have the appropriate management knowledge for handling our breeding animals and make sure that they become a success in China."

The order is the latest in a long line of success stories for DanBred genetics in China. In 2014, a relatively small customer and family farm in the Shandong province invested in ten DanBred Hybrid gilts and two DanBred Duroc boars and quickly experienced the massive potential of these animals, according to DanBred.

With focused effort and technical support from DanBred in regards to biosecurity, management and nutrition, the farm quickly grew and Pigs per sow per year (PSY) results reached 24, at a time when the average for China was 18. Having witnessed the potential of the DanBred animals, the farm bought 600 Hybrid gilts. Eventually, they were able to achieve a productivity result of 31 PSY.

- DanBred