August 6, 2024

Muyuan leads in China's pig slaughtering - with Shuanghui trailing behind 

An eFeedLink Exclusive

Muyuan, according to its annual report, slaughtered 13.26 million pigs in 2023, surpassing that of Shuanghui.

 

Already, by 2022, Muyuan's slaughtering production capacity had reached 29 million heads/year, surpassing Shuanghui's annual capacity of 25 million heads. With its pig slaughtering volume at 239,000 heads in 2020, Muyuan's slaughtering volume rose to 13.26 million heads in 2023. One can see why it is considered to potentially become Shuanghui's biggest competitor.

 

In 2012, Shuanghui executed a major asset reorganisation, significantly lifting the company's slaughter capacity from 2.48 million heads in 2011 to 11.42 million heads. Its slaughter volume in 2022 was about 11.3 million heads, before increasing to 12.69 million heads in 2023. However, if it still maintains the same production capacity for the next decade, it may be hard for it to even be in the third spot for the most pig slaughtering.

 

As for Muyan, the company, together with the two biggest pig producers in China, New Hope and Wens, exceeded 100 million heads in combined output as China's national pig output totalled 726.62 million heads last year. Meanwhile, other pig farming giants including Wens, New Hope and Tech-Bank have, like Muyuan, entered the slaughtering sector.

 

New Hope's slaughtering capacity reached 5.5 million heads in 2023; it slaughtered 2.91 million pigs in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 44%. Tech-Bank's slaughtering capacity were five million heads, with 1.5637 million pigs slaughtered last year, a year-on-year increase of 34%. Wens currently has four pig slaughtering slaughterhouses with a total capacity of four million heads. New Wellful has an annual single-shift slaughtering and processing capacity of 700,000 pigs.

 

Of course, any progress on Muyuan's part would be met with challenges. Last year, pig producers with slaughtering facilities incurred losses due to low utilisation of slaughtering capacity and high investment costs. The pig breeding industry was also suffering financially throughout the year. Additionally, low prices of pork products suppressed the profit margin of the slaughtering business.

 

In the same year, China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued the "Three-Year Action Plan for Strict Standardisation to Promote Safety and Security of Livestock and Poultry Slaughtering", which proposed slaughtering enterprises locate to key breeding production areas and improve the synergy between slaughtering capacity and breeding capacity.

 

For now, several major pig producers are expected to continue expanding in the slaughtering sector.

- David Lin, eFeedLink