The entrepreneurial story of pig-farming fanatic Zhang Xunzhao

Everyone is raising pigs, and most people hope every day that their pigs will grow up quickly, eat less feed and put on more meat, to catch this wave of never-before-seen good pig prices, but Zhang Xunzhao raises pigs differently from others. In his view, growing fast is not a good thing; he tries every possible way to make the pigs grow slowly. Making pigs grow slowly is already very strange, but his pork still sells well, which is even stranger.

It turns out that what Zhang Xunzhao raises is the Tuhe black pig, an ancient purebred northern Chinese species with a history of more than 4,200 years, and also a nationally protected geographical indication product. Over the past 10 years, Zhang Xunzhao has turned the Tuhe black pig, a local breed, from more than 30 head in 2006 into a herd reaching 30,000 head slaughtered at the end of 2015, letting vast numbers of consumers eat high-quality good pork. The Tuhe black pig has become one of China's most influential black pig brands, and became famous for a time after being made into the film "I Am Crazy for Pigs".

In Jiyang County, Shandong Province, on the banks of the Yellow River, Zhang Xunzhao is a well-known figure; he once served as deputy director of the county forestry bureau. A chance opportunity brought him into contact with the Tuhe black pig, which originated in the Tuhe River basin, and from then on he resigned from public office and became a man "crazy for pigs".

In early 2006, Zhang Xunzhao spent more than 3 months searching along the Tuhe River basin in Liaocheng, Binzhou, Jinan and other places, spending more than 400,000 yuan, and bought back 103 black pig breeding pigs. Later, after appraisal, it was found that these breeding pigs had been crossbred for many generations and their bloodlines were no longer pure, so they could no longer be used as breeding pigs. Zhang Xunzhao had no choice but to slaughter these breeding pigs and sell them at the price of ordinary pork, losing more than 200,000 yuan.

Later, with the help of experts, Zhang Xunzhao visited more than 20 townships and more than 50 farming households along the Tuhe River, and found 30 purebred Tuhe black pigs. At the end of 2007, Zhang Xunzhao invested more than 3 million yuan to specially raise Tuhe black pigs, established the Tuhe black pig original breeding farm, and became our country's first conservation base for Tuhe black pigs.

The health and quality of pork are, to a large extent, determined by the farming process. Zhang Xunzhao says that Tuhe black pigs go through the four seasons and eat the five grains, and their pork has a natural original aroma. In order to maximize the inherent fine qualities of the Tuhe black pig, Zhang Xunzhao fully respects the natural attributes of the Tuhe black pig and lets it grow naturally; the farm has established an organic feed production base. At the same time, it adopts the method of adding Chinese herbal medicine to the feed to prevent and control epidemics, uses Chinese herbal formulas to treat pig diseases, and raises them for 1 year before slaughter, ensuring the original flavor of the Tuhe black pig.

Although Tuhe black pig meat is fragrant and tender, it has relatively more fat. In order to reduce the fat of the pork, Zhang Xunzhao specially designed sports activities for Tuhe black pigs such as hurdling, licking wooden posts, playing ball and swimming. Every Tuhe black pig carries out running and hurdling and diving and swimming sports every day, which not only improves its own resistance but also increases the lean meat rate, making the muscle fibers of Tuhe black pork finer and the meat more delicious.

Many citizens who have bought Tuhe black pork will find that Tuhe black pork is all frozen meat, not the commonly seen chilled fresh meat. In fact, this is also one of the oddities of Zhang Xunzhao's meat selling, and it is done on purpose. Zhang Xunzhao says that at room temperature, bacteria and viruses multiply very quickly in pork. To solve this problem, Tuhe black pigs adopt the method commonly used in European and American countries: 24 hours before slaughter they are acid- and toxin-eliminated, the meat is frozen to minus 35 degrees Celsius to freeze to death the vast majority of bacteria and viruses, and then cut and packed into vacuum bags. Therefore, Tuhe black pig is also a domestic supplier of fresh meat with no live bacteria. In breeding and developing Tuhe black pigs, Zhang Xunzhao holds 7 national invention patents, and the products have 7 major series and more than 60 varieties. Tuhe black pig has successively obtained national geographical indication protection product status and organic food certification from the Ministry of Agriculture. More than 30 Tuhe black pig direct-sales stores have been established in Beijing, Shanghai and Jinan. Tuhe Food, which integrates Tuhe black pig conservation, breeding, slaughtering, processing and sales, is about to be listed on the New Third Board. At present, Zhang Xunzhao aims to create a healthy ecological new direct-supply model, develop a new economy of crowdfunding that goes into pig farms, build a new business format of an urban household alliance for breeding and consumption, turn consumers into prosumers, and let more ordinary people eat Tuhe black pork.