Why Black Guinea Pig Farming Must Take the Path of Large-Scale Operations
Over the past two years, the black guinea pig, which holds the dual identity of a “black food” and a “green food,” has “crawled” its way onto people's dining tables. The craze for eating black guinea pig is heating up across the country, consumption is starting to rise, and the black guinea pig farming industry has become booming thanks to the strong pull of the consumer market. Faced with such a “red-hot” farming craze, how should one choose? What are the prospects for black guinea pig farming?
How Big Is the Black Guinea Pig Market?
The black guinea pig, also known as the guinea pig, has delicious and tender meat and high value for medicinal therapy and health care, and enjoys the reputation of “black diamond” and “black beauty.” The black guinea pig's fur is glossy black, thick in texture, soft and wear-resistant, and good at retaining warmth; the blood of the black guinea pig can be used to extract serotonin, and its testicles can be used to produce drugs for treating epilepsy.
Looking at China's consumer market, the consumption areas for black guinea pig meat have expanded from the hotels and restaurants of the initial coastal large and medium-sized cities to the inland and to ordinary people's dining tables, but Guangzhou, Shanghai, Hong Kong, China and other places remain the main consumer markets. Due to the strong pull of the consumer market, black guinea pig farming has developed rapidly in various places, and some breeding bases have begun to develop deep-processed black guinea pig products, successively producing more than a hundred series dishes such as “steamed black guinea pig,” “braised black guinea pig,” “stir-fried guinea pig slices with asparagus,” and “teppanyaki guinea pig meat”; they have initially blazed an industrialization path integrating production, supply and sales, promoting the development of the industry.
Where Are the Industry's Weaknesses?
Judging from the current state of the industry, the development of black guinea pig farming is still less than satisfactory. Most farmers still rely mainly on household free-range raising, some farms are generally small in scale, the degree of intensive production is low, and commodity supply is insufficient; the black guinea pig product trading market is basically at a spontaneous and scattered initial stage, and the production sector has not yet formed scale or leading processing enterprises.
In addition, some seed resellers, exploiting the gaps in China's still-imperfect special breeding mechanisms, engage in “seed speculation” under various banners, which has severely dampened farmers' enthusiasm for breeding and set up many obstacles for black guinea pig farming to take the popularized path. As a result, many ordinary people now assume a “black guinea pig project” is fake the moment they hear of it.
The so-called “seed speculation” phenomenon means buying up stock at low prices and selling it as breeding stock at more than 3 times the commodity market price. For example, a pair of black guinea pigs of about 400 grams (one male and one female) is sold by some “seed speculators” for 100 to 400 yuan, whereas at a large-scale farm in Guangxi, a pair sells for only fifty or sixty yuan, and commodity animals for thirty or forty yuan/kg (each about 650 grams).
After knowing the above information, there are two simplest ways to tell whether black guinea pigs are being “speculated”: first, whether breeding guinea pigs cost more than 80 yuan/pair, and especially those above 100 yuan/pair are best avoided; second, whether the farm has a certain number of commodity black guinea pigs for sale. If the farm only sells breeding guinea pigs at more than 80 yuan/pair but has no certain number of commodity black guinea pigs for sale (or deliberately quotes a high price for commodity black guinea pigs, such as above 70 yuan/kg, to set up obstacles to your purchase, and refuses even to discuss slaughtering one for a taste), then with these two signs it is very likely engaged in “seed speculation,” or the farm itself has also been raising them for only a short time and is small in scale; it is advisable not to buy breeding stock from such a farm or company.
Where Is the Way Out for Farming?
First, it must be affirmed that industrialization is the inevitable path for the industry's development. The degree of industrialization is the prerequisite that determines whether the special breeding industry can walk steadily and go far.
Second, a correct development mindset should be established. As a black guinea pig enterprise, one should establish a market mindset, a legal mindset and a credibility mindset.
The so-called market mindset includes two meanings: first, one must get past the hurdle of the commodity market and sell products into the hands of final consumers; second, one must work hard on deep processing of products and develop serialized products such as fur, meat and medicine.
More importantly, one must establish a legal mindset and maintain good corporate credibility, so that black guinea pig farming can develop over the long term.