Luzhou, Sichuan: Porcupine Farming - Sell the Meat, Then Sell the Quills

A porcupine covered in quills - what is it actually worth? "The current market price is 150 yuan/kg, and demand exceeds supply. If you follow my breeding and sales methods, one porcupine plus its quills and bristles can earn 1,500 yuan." On June 25, looking at the porcupines in his pen, Guo Qiang, a villager of Tuanjie Village, Baijie Town, Naxi District, Luzhou City, and a porcupine farmer, said proudly.

Walking into Guo Qiang's porcupine farm, all you could hear were "shasha" and "kacha" sounds. Guo Qiang said the "shasha" sound is porcupines eating vegetable leaves; the "kacha kacha" sound is the "little bells" on the porcupines' tails. This writer observed that these porcupines are black or dark brown all over, with slender, straight bristles on their heads and necks that curve backward, and three-lobed mouths like wild hares. On their backs, rumps and tails grow thick, straight, black-and-white spindle-shaped quills, some with barbs at the tips, like arrows.

Targeting the Market, a Young Man Returns Home to Raise Porcupines "I had only ever seen porcupines on TV before. It wasn't until a few years ago, when I saw people in Chongqing making money raising porcupines, that I came back home and joined this industry." Guo Qiang, 24 years old this year, said while feeding cabbage leaves to the porcupines. After graduating from junior high school in 2008, he went out to work at an auto parts factory in Chongqing. Five years later he was promoted to senior technician, earning 8,500 yuan a month including bonuses, becoming the highest-paid repairman at the factory. By chance, after seeing a young man in Jiangbei District, Chongqing, earn 600,000 yuan a year raising porcupines, he resolutely gave up his auto repair job, and in May 2013 returned to his hometown with more than 200,000 yuan in savings, built a porcupine farm, bought breeding stock and began his path of raising porcupines, becoming the first person to farm porcupines in Luzhou.

"I gave up a high salary to raise porcupines not on a whim, but after investigating and finding that porcupine farming was still a blank space in the Luzhou market, I made up my mind to do it." Guo Qiang said porcupines are omnivores, with immunity much stronger than ordinary pigs, and he could bear the farming risks.

In Guo Qiang's farm, spacious rooms are divided by brick walls into small pens, each holding three to five porcupines of different sizes. "Raising them in small pens not only prevents porcupines from fighting, but also makes 'assembly-line breeding' management easier, ensuring that more than 20 porcupines can be sold every month." Guo Qiang said a porcupine of about 20 kg needs an 8-month growth period. To have porcupines for sale every month, he divided the pens into small units of 4 sq m, feeding on schedule to keep track of when the porcupines are ready for market. And for one porcupine raised for 8 months to 20 kg, after deducting feed and piglet costs, the profit is at least 1,400 yuan per animal.

Innovative Sales: Quills and Bristles Both Bring Money "Other people's porcupines bring 1,400 yuan profit each, but mine bring 1,500 yuan, because the bristles and quills on each porcupine sell for more than 100 yuan." It turns out that after adding feed to the pens, Guo Qiang picks up the quills the porcupines have shed on the ground one by one.

"Porcupine meat is not only fine-textured and delicious, but the quills and bristles on its body are treasures too. They can be used as medicine and made into fine decorations. In the past two years, my porcupine quills have sold for as much as 240 yuan/kg, and porcupine bristles for 100 yuan/kg, and they have long been ordered by a merchant." Guo Qiang said that before raising porcupines he had already planned to sell the quills and bristles along with the porcupines for money.

To make sure every porcupine's quills and bristles could be sold for money, the shrewd Guo Qiang became a butcher. Whenever a buyer didn't want the quills and bristles, he would help slaughter the porcupine for free. "I get more than 100 yuan in extra income, and the buyer saves dozens of yuan in slaughtering costs - a win-win." He said with a smile.

Guo Qiang did the math for this writer: one porcupine has more than 6 liang of quills and nearly 6 liang of bristles, which at current market prices can sell for 100 yuan-110 yuan. He sells more than 200 porcupines a year, earning nearly 30,000 yuan in extra profit from quills and bristles alone.