Returning home to raise native black pigs, a green brand opens up sales channels

Liu Qiang, now 27 years old, returned to his hometown of Xiaochi Town, Taihu County after graduating from university in 2013. He chose to raise black pigs using traditional free-range methods. In just three years, he reached a scale of 600 black pigs marketed per year, and sold black pork to Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places, earning more than one million yuan a year.

Three years of planning to raise black pigs

At noon on September 3, the reporter came to a hill called Dawa in Haihui Village, Xiaochi Town, Taihu County, and met Liu Qiang, now 27 years old. Dressed in plain blue work clothes, he was herding and walking his "Second Senior Brother" pigs on the hill. The "Second Senior Brother" pigs were naturally those black pigs. From the pig pens to the hill, the "Second Senior Brother" pigs went up the hill, entered the pens, listened to music and took baths every day, all at fixed times, fixed places and fixed positions. Liu Qiang was like a general commanding thousands of troops, ordering his "Second Senior Brother" pigs about at will. "Pigs raised in an environment like this naturally have good-tasting meat," Liu Qiang said confidently.

As for Liu Qiang returning to his hometown to start a business and choosing to raise black pigs, besides being related to his university major in animal science, it was even more thanks to the inspiration Liu Qiang received during his university internship. In 2010, while still a sophomore at Chizhou Vocational and Technical College, Liu Qiang came to an ecological agriculture development company in Tongcheng City for an internship. The company's farming model was to raise black pigs in pens in the early stage and free-range them in the later stage. Although black pigs have a longer growth cycle, more than twice that of ordinary pigs, reaching at least more than 10 months, and require a long-term supply of green feed, precisely because of this they can maintain the high quality and taste of the pork, so the pork market sales kept rising. At this time, Liu Qiang silently planted the seed of the dream of returning home to start a business in his heart.

In July 2011, Liu Qiang, having just graduated from university, went to a nucleus pig farm in Chuzhou for an internship, working his way up from commune member to feeder, team leader, supervisor and factory director. He used one year to learn their corporate operations and management. By July 2012, Liu Qiang went to an ecological agriculture development company in Hangzhou to learn about agricultural product sales. This was a newly established company, mainly promoting other people's agricultural products to supermarkets and hotel intermediaries. After studying in Hangzhou for 8 months, he gained a certain understanding of the basic laws of agricultural by-product marketing. After three years, the ambitious Liu Qiang made up his mind, wrote a 6-page business plan, and kept working hard silently in many places and accumulating experience for the dream of returning home to start a business.

Returning home to become a "pig herder"

In early 2013, Liu Qiang returned to his hometown and chose a hill more than 500 meters from home to lay the foundation for his business. He introduced 100 piglets, all native black pigs purchased from farmers in the mountains.

At the beginning of his business, Liu Qiang focused on taking the brand route. In August 2013, he registered and established the Wanxiang Black Pig Ecological Farm, and subsequently established Kangyuan Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., gradually forming an industry chain integrating breeding, processing and sales, with Dawa Hill in Haihui Village as the breeding base, designated slaughtering locations in Xiaochi Town, the park for processing cut meat, packaging and e-commerce sales, and his own physical store established beside Puchu Middle School, with products mainly aimed at urban consumers. At the end of 2013, the first batch of 40 black pigs was marketed, producing more than 6,000 jin of meat, with an output value of more than 100,000 yuan, all sold to the local market. Because of its good taste and excellent meat quality, suitable for middle- and high-end consumers, it was warmly welcomed by residents. Just after the New Year in 2014, Liu Qiang again persuaded two university classmates from Wangjiang and Susong to join his entrepreneurial team. After the two classmates joined, Liu Qiang mainly handled the market, the male classmate was responsible for technical management, and the female classmate was in charge of finance. Venturing into the market, browsing social circles, sending WeChat messages and doing e-commerce, both online and offline, the three classmates became a golden partnership, like fish in water. The company's business flourished, and its products gradually became hot-selling goods in the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai markets.

"What we feed the black pigs is all melons, fruits and wild vegetables. They are free-ranged in the mountains for more than two months, allowing them to move fully, so residents really like this kind of pork," Liu Qiang said. Through his previous connections, he sold the pork to Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places. Plain whole pork was 18 yuan per jin, and the profit from one black pig could reach 1,200 yuan.

In the future, the goal is to develop premium pork

Liu Qiang's "Second Senior Brother" pigs all have their own "ID cards," which is truly a rare thing in rural areas. And native black pork sold in Shanghai for 68 yuan per jin, which became news that caused a stir locally.

All of this benefited from August 2015, when through a friend's introduction Liu Qiang got to know Xu Wenqing, a boss from Jingjiang, Jiangsu, who came to Taihu to develop planting and breeding. Xu Wenqing, who had been developing the healthy breeding industry for many years, had a broad customer base of middle- and high-end consumers in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, while Taihu's natural ecological environment became a "natural oxygen bar" for developing the healthy breeding industry. Under Xu Wenqing's guidance, they also gathered a group of university students interested in developing the healthy breeding industry, registered their own brand under the geographical name of the "Xiangbizui" ecological breeding base in Siqian Town, developed circular and healthy planting and breeding, and banded together to enter the "Shanghai Bund." Xiangbizui maternal-infant eggs were 4.4 yuan each, and Xiangbizui native black pork belly was 68 yuan per jin, selling well in Shanghai and in short supply. "A 150-jin black pig, after careful cutting, yields only 70-80 jin of pork that meets the requirements, so the price is naturally high," Liu Qiang told the reporter, saying that in the future the focus would be on developing the premium meat market.

"In the future, the base will also implement full-process monitoring of the breeding process. Consumers only need to click a mouse at home and scan a QR code to see the entire ecological and healthy breeding process of each pig at home, making consumption safer and more reassuring," Liu Qiang told the reporter. At present, 600 black pigs are marketed each year, with profits reaching more than one million yuan. Next, the scale will be expanded, and within three years it is to reach a scale of 5,000 black pigs marketed per year.