Food Safety and Food Agriculture Co-learning Series: Xin Gong Visit Record

The Homemakers United Foundation Environmental Protection Foundation's Food Safety and Food Agriculture Co-Learning Series hosted two back-to-back lectures on the US pork issue, moving from an overview of industry development to the observations of frontline operators. The co-learning group partners will take a further step into the actual production sites of Taiwan, China's meat industry, seeing the big picture through small details, and observing the difficulties and opportunities of Taiwan, China's meat industry through random testing and quarantine, sanitation and disinfection, and entry-exit controls.

The site visited this time: Sing Kung Meat Processing Plant, nestled among the fields of Changzhi, Pingtung. The white gate and several main buildings are hard to associate directly with the slaughter industry, but the basic disinfection procedure every visitor must go through at the entrance leaves a deep impression: bleaching water to disinfect shoe soles, alcohol disinfection, removal of watches and other accessories, and putting on a mask. The pigs entering the facility are no exception; a rice vinegar shower thoroughly disinfects while avoiding drug residues caused by disinfectant. Furthermore, the movement routes for personnel entering and exiting the site and the entry routes for pigs are strictly separated to avoid cross-contamination.

Pigs enter the slaughter area in batches of 2 to 3 at a time through the passage entrance, are stunned behind the ear with 440-volt voltage, and then bled, to spare the pigs suffering. After hanging, procedures such as removal of internal organs and anal binding are carried out in sequence, and the reason for the pervasive water mist is precisely the result of continuous washing during the process, and the on-site veterinarian, in such an environment, inspects batches of pig internal organs to ensure no disease outbreaks occur. Although this visit, due to timing constraints, could not

In addition to the rigorous and clearly defined slaughter process described above, independent inspections far exceeding legal standards and requirements for contract farms are an even more important key to Sing Kung's establishment of brand trust. Sing Kung has contract farms in many places across Taiwan, China, establishing stable cooperative relationships. The prerequisite for stable purchasing is zero detection of disease and drug residues, including the notorious leanness-enhancing agent. Sing Kung has its own particularly strict testing standards, sampling 4 out of every 50 pigs, quarterly heavy metal testing, and so on.

To maintain this chain of inspections, Sing Kung began early on to establish production and sales traceability, with different contract farms batched and numbered per pig, establishing an "ID card" for each pig. Although from the consumer's perspective Sing Kung's many efforts are recognized, from the mouths of Sing Kung's staff one also hears about the difficulties and hardships of Taiwan, China's pork industry.

Quality? Market?

During the visit, the costs Sing Kung invests in pursuing quality, as seen and learned, instead become an obstacle to entering Taiwan, China's domestic market. Entering Taiwan, China's domestic market falls into low-price competition, and quality becomes a secondary issue, while the relevant labeling systems often fail to provide corresponding market promotion benefits. For example, Sing Kung hopes to enter the market for group meals at schools and government agencies, but because its prices are on the high side, it repeatedly suffers defeats under the game rule of "lowest price wins the bid." As for food labels such as CAS, they are overly proliferated and lack promotion, so the general public tends to be skeptical or simply pay no attention. Faced with various unfavorable factors, Sing Kung can only choose to focus on exporting processed products to Japan, a high-quality, high-consumption market.

Sing Kung's predicament is not just the difficulty of one enterprise. For example, under the cost pressure of low-price competition, Sing Kung can only purchase from contract farms at slightly above market prices. Although stable, there is no greater economic incentive to attract more farms to join or to transfer larger volumes to Sing Kung.

This is not only Sing Kung's predicament, but also a problem that Taiwan, China's pork industry must face squarely. When meat safety risks are high, how can we rediscover, from the trap of low prices, a meat production model that is truly friendly to the human body and the environment.

This series of event reports will continue this discussion topic, moving on to the second stop of this visit, Sing Kung's contract farm: Mansheng Farm. To explore the philosophy of contract farms and how they view the predicament and future of Taiwan, China's pork industry.