Pigs are also "stuck in the neck": less than 2% of local pigs, how to fight the turnaround of breeding pigs?
In recent years, the problem of chip stuck neck has almost become a national topic, and we have also talked many times on Shan Renxing.
But maybe we didn't expect that the food that is closely related to us is also stuck in the neck.
Not long ago, state leaders emphasized during their research in Hainan that seeds are the key to China's food security. Only by holding Chinese seeds tightly with one's own hands can we stabilize China's rice bowl and achieve food security.
This reminds me of an article by CCTV Finance last year called "8 varieties of local pigs are extinct! The local pig market share dropped from 90% to 2%! Where did the local "Second Senior Brother" go? ".
Not only are the chips blocked by foreign countries, but even pigs, especially breeding pigs that specialize in breeding live pigs, are also blocked by foreign countries.
Today, we will talk about the current status of China's grain industry through the subdivision of "breeding pigs", and at the same time, think about our own subdivision.
The downfall of native pigs
Pork occupies an irreplaceable position on the Chinese table, and China is also the world's largest pork consumer.
From the perspective of supply and demand, the global consumption of pork in 2019 is 100 million tons, and China consumes nearly 45 million tons, and the EU, which ranks second, consumes more than 20 million tons; The United States is 29.4 kilograms, and China's per capita pork consumption is more than the United States.
Pigs are also "stuck in the neck": less than 2% of local pigs, how to fight the turnaround of breeding pigs?
The reason why the demand for pork is so large is that on the one hand, the absolute advantage of the population, on the other hand, compared with cattle and sheep, live pigs have a shorter slaughter cycle and higher breeding efficiency.
Therefore, the key link of the pork business lies in the breeding of breeding pigs. They are like the chips in the mobile phone, which determine the performance and experience of the mobile phone.
In the past, the market share of local pigs once reached 90%.
But today, the market share of local pigs is less than 2%, and it is almost impossible to find any traces. The market is mostly large white pigs, landrace pigs and Duroc pigs bred by imported breeding pigs.
According to data from CCTV Finance, in 2020, China will import 30,000 breeding pigs, and the price of each breeding pig is 30,000 to 50,000, of which 40% are from Canada, 30% from the United States, while France and Denmark account for 15% and 10% respectively. .
Why did the native pigs decline?
There are two main reasons:
First, compared with local pigs, the lean meat rate of imported breeding pigs (breeding) is higher, which can reach about 60%, while that of local pigs is only about 40%.
Second, the slaughter cycle of imported breeding pigs is shorter.
The feeding cycle of local pigs takes about a year, but imported breeding pigs only take half the time, that is, 6 months to be released for slaughter.
And in terms of feeding cost, the meat-to-feed ratio of local pigs is 1:5, that is to say, it takes 5 catties of feed to grow a pound of meat, and the meat-to-feed ratio of imported pigs is 1:3 or even 1:2. It requires 2 to 3 kilograms of feed. In terms of feeding cost, local pigs have no competitive advantage at all.
There are three lean-meat breeds of breeding pigs in the world today, namely Duroc pigs in the United States, Landrace pigs in Denmark and Great White pigs in the United Kingdom. Become the leading breed in global pig farming. Chen Yaosheng said that from a global point of view, it is an international practice to carry out localized selection and breeding of "Du Dachang" according to the needs of the domestic market. He said: "Since the introduction of 'Du Changchang' in the 1980s, my country has implemented localized selection and breeding, especially since the national pig genetic improvement program was launched in 2009, it has further accelerated systematic selection, thus ensuring that our country is close to 90% of the seed supply in the hog market.”
That is to say, most of the pork on our daily table is locally selected and bred using foreign breeding pigs. Even so, on this basis, there is still a 10%-30% gap between my country's core pig breeding population and developed countries in terms of litter size, feed conversion rate and other key traits. Zhu Li, a professor at Sichuan Agricultural University, said bluntly that one of the important reasons is that the best breeding pigs cannot be imported. He said: "It is impossible to bring back the best breeds. We may bring back pigs from the second tier. After the breeds are brought back, if there is no selection and management, they will basically degenerate after two years. In this case , the constant introduction of seeds is almost an inescapable curse."
Therefore, imported breeds have surpassed local breeds in terms of quality, cost and production efficiency, which is also the fundamental reason for the decline of local pigs.
If the product is not good, you can't blame the market for not choosing you.
But behind the reason, there is a hidden competition, that is, the technical battle for breeding breeding pigs.
"Postpartum care of the sow" is a science
Breeding pigs is not an easy task.
Netizens often joke that "postpartum care of sows" is really a discipline.
Pigs are also "stuck in the neck": less than 2% of local pigs, how to fight the turnaround of breeding pigs?
Feeding breeding pigs should not only pay attention to the feeding indicators and nutritional indicators of the feed, but also select suitable genes and use genetic technology to cultivate high-quality breeding pigs.
However, these technologies are blocked by the monopoly of foreign companies.
This can also answer a question from the side, why do we already have more than 100 national-level pig breeding farms, as well as pig breeding giants such as Wenshi, Zhengbang, Tianbang, and Muyuan, but there is no world-class pig breeding enterprise? Are you going to import breeding pigs?
In fact, it is not. As early as 2014, Tianbang wanted to introduce seeds from CG, the world's second largest breeding company, and acquired a 41% stake in CG, becoming the second largest shareholder.
However, because they did not have an advantage in voting rights, the rest of the CG board of directors unanimously opposed the disclosure of the technology with Tianbang. They were unwilling to publish the breeding pig genome to Tianbang, and were only willing to sell the breeding pigs at a lower price.
In 2018, Beijing Dabeinong Technology Group announced that its plan to wholly acquire Waldo Farms, an American pig breeding company, was rejected by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), and the acquisition was forced to terminate.
These two cases have truly uncovered the tip of the iceberg.
Like many fields, the reason why foreign "pig-breeding" companies can become giants:
First, the layout was early, and it entered the global market at an early stage. After the market became bigger, it took advantage of scale to squeeze later competitors.
Second, the technology started early, and it can carry out scientific and systematic breeding, and use digital systems and genetic tools to screen and cultivate excellent varieties.
The third is a clear competitive strategy. After these foreign companies enter a certain country, they will not take over the entire industry chain at once, but will be joint ventures or agents to local companies.
I'll let you make money quickly, so you don't need to think about any technology research and development, how tiring.
So, this is why in many fields, we have big companies, but not strong companies.
