One of China’s top pig producers, Muyuan Foods, is trying to raise more hogs on a single site than any company in the world. Reuters says it’s a risky investment as African Swine Fever still lingers in the country.
The company began building the farm back in March and started operations at the first of 21 new buildings in September. It’s symbolic of how fast huge industrial hog facilities are replacing smaller, more traditional farms. Many of the smaller operations were wiped out by the worst animal disease outbreak in history. Corporate farms weren’t spared from ASF, but as prices rose again, they quickly recovered their losses.
The company’s newest mega-farm will eventually house close to 84,000 sows and their offspring, by far the largest in the world. That’s roughly ten times the size of a breeding facility in the U.S. The company says its goal is to produce about 2.1 million pigs per year.
Muyuan will spend about 40 billion yuan this year on new pig farms.
