World’s largest pig farm in China will ‘produce’ 2 million pigs per year

Chinese pig producer Muyuan Foods is building the world’s biggest pig farm to breed and slaughter as many pigs as possible in one place. The company aims to ‘produce’ around 2.1 million pigs a year at the new farm.

The company began construction of the new mega farm in March and started operations at the first of its 21 buildings in September.

Since 2018, more than 100 million pigs were killed in China after a huge African swine fever outbreak. Small farms were wiped out, but huge industrialized farms suffered a loss but recovered quickly because pig prices went up.

“We have hit a very favorable period for development. Pig prices are very high, our profits are really good, and cash flow is really ample,” Qin Jun, Muyuan’s vice general manager told Reuters.

Muyuan’s new mega farm near Nanyang, which will keep 84,000 female pigs and their kids captive, is by far the largest in the world. Muyuan will spend about 40 billion yuan ($6.11 billion) this year on new pig farms, Qin said, about eight times what it spent two years ago.

“We will employ fewer people and use more technology,” he said, pointing to intelligent feeding systems, manure cleaning robots, and infrared cameras to detect when pigs have a fever. Its density carries huge risk, however, with diseases including the swine fever virus still circulating in China.

Pigs are highly intelligent and social animals, even more than dogs. When they’re used solely for food, they never see daylight or get any moment in their short life to live freely and feel love.