Low breeding costs and high prices for Xiang pigs, but a chaotic market leaves farmers worried about sales

Rising living standards have prompted people to pursue better dietary quality; they not only want to eat their fill, but also to eat well. Because of its delicious, sweet and fragrant meat, combined with the breed's characteristics of being fed coarse feed and raised free-range, the Xiang pig has won the favor of some consumers with relatively strong spending power. In recent years, many reports about farming Xiang pigs to supply mid- to high-end hotels have appeared in the press, and many people have seized the opportunity to introduce Xiang pigs for farming.

Tolerant of coarse feed and easy to raise, with low breeding costs

In Meizhou, Guangdong, there is a Xiang pig farm that has begun to take shape -- Meizhou Niantai Ecological Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Development Co., Ltd. The pig farm follows a cooperative model, developing nearby farmers into partners, while also registering a trademark and carrying out brand packaging. So far, the pig farm has more than 300 sows in stock and a total inventory of more than 2,000 head. Seven years of operation have brought the pig farm into relatively stable profitability.

For disease prevention reasons, as with ordinary large-scale pig farms, the company chose a relatively remote location for the pig farm -- in Xinpu Town, 15 kilometers from Jiaoling County town. The pens are built along the mountain, arranged in order along the slope: at the very top are the breeding pig pens, in the middle are the piglet pens, and at the bottom are the finishing pig pens.

Li Xifeng, general manager of the company, introduced that because Bama Xiang pigs are small in size, more Xiang pigs can be raised per unit area. Taking finishing pigs as an example, 40 sq m can raise 30 Xiang pigs of about 40 jin. Xiang pigs like free-range raising and foraging in the wild, so a large area of woodland needs to be enclosed beside the pens for the Xiang pigs to move around in.

It is understood that the Xiang pig is a pig breed tolerant of coarse feed, and breeding costs are not high, so ordinary farm households can raise them. Xiang pig farming does not require much labor. Taking the Niantai pig farm as an example, a farm of 2,000 head needs only 5 people to manage, and the feed that Xiang pigs eat is relatively varied and can be adjusted according to local conditions. Li Xifeng's experience is 20% coarse feed, mainly rice bran, corn and wheat bran; 30%-40% green feed, including forage grass and crop seedlings; the rest is mixed feed. This feed combination has relatively low cost. A pig takes about 6 months to grow to 50 jin, and even a pig weighing 50 jin needs only 1.5-2 jin of feed per day, costing about 2 yuan, and there is no need to buy feed containing additives.

Regarding disease prevention and control for Xiang pigs, the focus is on two aspects: cleaning and disinfection, and vaccines. Li Xifeng stipulates that the pig farm needs to be disinfected once a week, and outside vehicles must also be disinfected first before entering the pig farm. As for vaccines, it is also relatively simple; the vaccines issued by the veterinary station can be used. “Xiang pigs are themselves raised on coarse feed, pig manure causes less pollution, the living environment is naturally better, and they get enough exercise, so they are very healthy and have relatively strong resistance to disease. ”

In terms of introducing Bama Xiang pigs, people are used to considering introduction from the place of origin of Bama Xiang pigs -- Bama County, Guangxi. According to Mr. Yang, a Guangxi Xiang pig farmer engaged in Xiang pig breeding and sales, a breeding pig now costs 500-700 yuan. A group of breeding pigs consists of 1 boar plus 10-15 sows. Some guidance on infrastructure and technology will be given to introduction clients, but sales channels must be developed on their own.

Xiang pigs are expensive and the market is chaotic, making sales channels hard to develop

Because of their own meat quality and growth characteristics, Xiang pigs sell for quite a lot more than ordinary pigs, with the ex-farm price averaging around 20 yuan/jin, and the retail price above 30 yuan/jin. Regarding sales, Li Xifeng summed it up: as long as production and sales are balanced, money can definitely be made; if more is produced than sold, it is a big headache. It is understood that Li Xifeng's sales channels are mainly hotels and farm resorts near and far, as well as local pig dealers selling at meat stalls. About 100 Xiang pigs of around 50-60 jin can be sold each month. But he still feels passive: “These channels are still unstable. They buy from me only as much as they sell, and both the time and quantity are uncertain, making production difficult to arrange and unfavorable for expanding scale. ”

He feels that the main factor limiting the expansion of Xiang pig production and sales is that consumer attitudes have not kept up. Ordinary people think it is expensive and are unwilling to buy. Ordinary people are used to checking the vegetable basket by quantity rather than quality, and Xiang pigs are favored only by a minority group.

Another problem is that the Xiang pig market is relatively chaotic: some farmers pass off ordinary piglets as Xiang pigs, or use complete feed to fatten Xiang pigs quickly, causing this industry to face a trust crisis. A Xiang pig farmer who was unwilling to disclose his name told the reporter that the vast majority of Xiang pig farmers now use complete feed to a greater or lesser extent, and sell the pigs as free-range Xiang pigs. Although the meat is not as sweet and fragrant as that of free-range pigs, ordinary people find it very hard to tell the difference.

In order to expand sales, Li Xifeng has thought of quite a few methods, such as processing some cured meat and sausages during festivals, with each jin selling for between 40-80 yuan, but because the price is high, only a few people support it. Continuing this attempt, he had an idea: try deep processing of Xiang pig meat in order to enter the Pearl River Delta market. However, a relatively big obstacle is that obtaining a “food deep processing license” is somewhat difficult.