Muyuan Foods, a leading Chinese pig farming enterprise, recently clarified its strategic direction amidst growing curiosity about its collaboration with the Dutch swine genetics company, Topigs Norsvin. During a 2024 mid-year financial briefing, Muyuan’s Secretary of the Board, Qin Jun, reassured stakeholders that the partnership will enhance, rather than disrupt, the company’s established independent breeding program.

Collaboration as an Enhancement, Not a Shift

Mr.Qin Jun emphasized that the collaboration with Topigs Norsvin is designed to complement and optimize Muyuan’s existing breeding techniques, rather than alter the company’s independent breeding route. He highlighted that the scale of this cooperation is relatively modest compared to Muyuan’s vast breeding operations. This cooperation marks a rare but strategic move in the pig breeding sector, with Mr.Qin noting that Muyuan remains committed to its autonomous breeding path while remaining open to future partnerships with other leading global genetics companies.

Project Specifics and Technological Integration

The cooperation between Muyuan and Topigs Norsvin was formally initiated in late June 2024, with the groundbreaking ceremony for a pig breeding facility in Liangzhou District, Wuwei City, Gansu Province. This project involves an investment of approximately CNY 136 million (about USD 18.92 million) and covers an area of 200 mu (about 33 acres). Upon completion, the facility is expected to house 1,200 sows and produce 30,000 piglets annually.

At the ceremony, Muyuan’s Chief Financial Officer, Mr.Gao Tong, outlined the integration of Topigs Norsvin’s superior swine genetics with Muyuan’s proprietary two-line breeding system. This integration aims to develop high-performance breeding pigs, which Mr.Gao emphasized as a significant contribution to the enhancement of China’s domestically-developed pig breeds—referred to as the “Chinese chip” in the swine industry.

Muyuan’s Two-Line Breeding System

Muyuan has consistently focused on innovation within its breeding practices, leading to the development of a unique two-line breeding system. According to the company’s mid-year report, this system is characterized by the direct application of boars selected from the core group to parent generations, facilitating multi-line crossbreeding production. The benefits of this breeding approach include:

• Hybrid Vigor: Each generation maintains hybrid vigor, ensuring robust offspring.
• Cost Efficiency: The system reduces the need for external pig purchases, lowering production costs.
• Disease Resistance: By minimizing the introduction of external genetic material, the system decreases the risk of disease transmission, thereby enhancing the adaptability and health of the pig population.

Muyuan’s breeding pigs are reportedly competitive in terms of reproductive performance, growth rate, lean meat percentage, and carcass quality, meeting both breeding and commercial demands.

Strategic Research and Development

Muyuan’s breeding advancements are further bolstered by collaborations with leading universities and research institutes. These partnerships focus on key technologies such as intelligent pig performance testing, big data-driven genetic evaluation, and molecular identification of pig germplasm resources. The company has also developed its own breeding system, which is protected by intellectual property rights, and established a specialized meat quality testing center. Leveraging its full industry chain advantage, Muyuan continues to conduct meat quality assessments to support the selection and breeding of superior pigs.

Market Position and Industry Influence

As of the first half of 2024, Muyuan has sold 312,000 breeding pigs, and by the end of June, the company’s breeding sow inventory had reached 3.309 million. The company also reported a significant decrease in the cost of weaned piglets, with costs dropping to approximately CNY 270 (about USD 37) per head by June.

According to AgriPost, Muyuan’s leadership in breeding innovation has not gone unnoticed by industry peers. For example, New Hope Liuhe, a competitor, has also taken steps to develop its own breeding systems, such as establishing a backcross breeding system alongside its conventional pyramid breeding model. New Hope plans to maintain a 20% ratio of its backcross system within its overall breeding strategy, citing the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of the system in the face of ongoing challenges such as African swine fever (ASF).

Muyuan Foods’ collaboration with Topigs Norsvin represents a strategic enhancement to its already robust breeding operations. By integrating advanced genetics from Topigs Norsvin with its proprietary breeding technology, Muyuan aims to strengthen its position as a leader in the swine industry while contributing to the development of high-performance, domestically-bred pigs in China. Despite the partnership, Muyuan remains committed to its independent breeding strategy, ensuring that its core technological route remains intact and continues to drive innovation within the industry.

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