China’s pork industry in 2020 looks like a scene from the history books when gold was discovered in California. However, this story is about piglets.
“Many of the pork producers in China are striking gold,” says John Deen, distinguished professor at the University of Minnesota. “Everyone is seeing there is money to be made and real opportunities in the pork industry. And it’s growing quite quickly.”
To say there’s optimism in the air – or a bit of entrepreneurial excitement – is an understatement, Deen says.
On Oct. 14 to 16, Deen took part in Leman China, an educational conference for pork producers in Chongqing. Leman China is an outgrowth of the U.S. conference, both of which Bob Morrison started in an effort to promote a scientific approach to pork production that brings producers, support industries, academia and governmental organizations together to stay focused on producing pigs in an efficient manner that provides health and welfare to the pigs.
This year’s conference was held in person in China, attracting more than 8,200 people, a record-high number. Parts of the conference were broadcast virtually, drawing another 12,500 people. Due to travel restrictions and quarantine requirements, Deen and other U.S. speakers participated virtually.
Hot topics at Leman China
Of course, African swine fever (ASF) continues to be a hot topic and has shaped the industry over the past two years, Deen says. The focus this year did address familiar topics such as repopulating herds that needed to be depopulated and understanding sanitization and biosecurity methods. But this year they began discussing how the industry is being realigned and how to structure it in such a way that it can respond more quickly to ASF when it does occur and minimize its effects in a certain area.
“Capital is entering the industry at an extraordinary manner due to the profitability of pork production now,” Deen says. “Some of our historic clients or farms we have worked with are now major companies on stock exchanges and showing extraordinary returns, especially for wean pigs valued in excess of $200 or $250. You can imagine some of the drive into the industry. We spent time discussing how that is done wisely and how that is done in a manner that allows pigs to be part of the countryside.”
Another major topic discussed was contract finishing. Deen says companies wanted to learn more about methods that would allow expansion to occur in a manner that is somewhat sustainable.
One of the things that surprised Gordon Spronk, DVM with Pipestone Veterinary System, was the lack of conversation surrounding building finishers. Most of the discussion was around building sow farms.
Biosecurity continues to be a concern for these companies as they are trying to find ways to incentivize contract growers to practice biosecurity, Spronk says.
“There still is a concern about human capital and skilled human capital to run farms,” Deen adds. “Some of those holes in biosecurity are not in standard protocols, but in compliance and education. Understanding risk is an important area of discussion now.”
The “World Pork Expo” of trade shows in China
Spronk says the trade show is one of the highlights at Leman China and continues to grow each year.
“The booths are very impressive,” Spronk says. “The largest booths in 2020 were promoting new technologies.”
Technologies for monitoring biosecurity, movement of employees and making sure perimeters are identified correctly were popular. In addition, Deen says there is a great emphasis right now on diagnosis of ASF and monitoring the disease within herds so various testing methods and protocols are being sold to catch the disease as early as possible.
Artificial intelligence technologies were also in demand – anything that helps producers monitor their herds and understand when pigs are sick or when they are in heat stress. Technologies such as motion detectors and video monitoring are being taken forward in China faster and more vigorously than anywhere else in the world, Deen says.
“Sometimes those technologies are not as well proven as we would like and some of the discussion at the conference was how do we evaluate what works and what doesn’t,” Deen adds. “What are scientific protocols for studying new technologies? It’s a luxury of a high-profit industry to be able to play around with these things.”
Why is this conference important?
ASF in China isn’t going away for some time, Deen says. It will be a chronic disease in China for the foreseeable future. Everyone wants to know how quickly China will return to “normal.” Although Deen can’t answer that question with certainty, he doesn’t believe it will happen for at least three to four years minimum.
The extraordinary amount of pigs that have been infected in China is a global concern that the world must proactively work together to address. Deen knows it’s a sensitive issue for some producers, but as a distinguished global professor, he takes his role of belonging to an international body of academics very seriously.
“We do not work in a silo, country by country,” he says. “We share.”
With China producing half of the world’s pigs, addressing control of a disease like ASF is critical.
“One of the best methods to keep ASF from entering the U.S. swine herd is to keep the disease at low levels in other swine herds. If there isn’t as much ASF in China, it’s not so much of a risk to the U.S.,” Deen says.
The reality is most countries want to be self-reliant with food. He believes it’s also important to note China’s cost of production is higher and will continue to be with ASF and other challenges facing their pig herd.
“There will continue to be opportunities to bring American pork into China, but it depends on maintaining good relationships,” Deen says. “Also, we make money off these activities in China – we aren’t doing it for free. We put that money back into research for the U.S.”
Spronk says there’s another important lesson to be learned from this event.
“We must stay focused,” Spronk says. “If we can keep foreign animal diseases out, that’s our value proposition. As compared to the U.S. that values pathogen elimination, that is not as valuable in China.”
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