Muyuan Foods: Built the World's Largest Intelligent Pig Farming Empire from 22 Pigs by a Henan Couple, Navigating the Hog Cycles

Origin

In 1992, Qin Yinglin, a veterinary major from Neixiang County, Henan, defied his family's objections, resigned from his public office, and returned home to raise pigs, starting with 30,000 RMB borrowed funds and 22 piglets. Initially driven by the desire to escape poverty and use professional knowledge to change the backward state of the farming industry, he insisted on self-breeding and scientific epidemic prevention, surviving through meticulous management while surrounding small-scale farmers generally suffered losses. A 1994 swine fever outbreak nearly destroyed all his inventory; Qin relied on quarantine, disinfection, and emergency disposal to protect his core breeding herd, making biosafety his life-and-death line from then on.

Milestones

Turning Points

• Surviving the 1994 swine fever disaster, establishing biosafety as the primary cost factor
• Going public on A-shares in 2014, securing low-cost capital to support heavy-asset expansion
• The 2018 African swine fever outbreak, where Muyuan bucked the trend and expanded due to pre-built closed farms
• Pork prices halving in 2021, forcing the suspension of some projects under construction and optimization of personnel structure
• The 2026 HKEX IPO, opening overseas financing channels while kicking off the international market
• The 2026 leadership transition, shifting from founder centralization to professionalized governance

Failures & Pitfalls

• The 2008 pork price crash, where Muyuan's profits dropped close to zero and it temporarily struggled to pay performance-based bonuses
• A single-quarter loss of 2.8 billion RMB in Q3 2021, where high-leverage expansion suffered cyclical backlash, forcing contraction
• Attempting to extend into slaughtering and food processing in 2022, but with excessive investments in cold chain and channels, the slaughtering business suffered losses for two consecutive years
• Intelligent equipment misjudging pig health in 2023, leading to increased mortality and culling rates in individual farm areas, resulting in internal disciplinary notices

Core Data

• 2025 Net Profit：Approximately 18 billion RMB (public data basis, independent review unverified)
• 2025 Hog Sales Volume：Over 70 million head (public data basis, independent review unverified)
• 2024 Full Cost：13 RMB/kg (public data basis, independent review unverified)
• 2020 A-Share Market Cap Peak：Over 370 billion RMB (public data basis, independent review unverified)
• February 2026 HK Market Cap：Approximately HK$230.7 billion (public data basis, independent review unverified)
• 2021 Employee Headcount：Over 150,000 people (public data basis, independent review unverified)
• 2014 A-Share IPO Market Cap：Approximately 4 billion RMB (public data basis, independent review unverified)
• 2020 Net Profit：27.4 billion RMB (public data basis, independent review unverified)

Competitors / Peers

In China's hog farming industry, Muyuan's biggest competitors are Wens Foodstuff Group and Zhengbang Technology (already reorganized). Wens has long adopted the 'company + farmer' asset-light model, with sales exceeding 30 million head in 2024, but its full costs are higher than Muyuan's. Zhengbang went bankrupt and underwent reorganization in 2022 due to high-leverage expansion, becoming a negative textbook example. New Hope Liuhe is also ramping up pig farming, with 2024 sales around 20 million head. In terms of international benchmarks, America's Smithfield Foods (now owned by WH Group) has an annual sales volume of about 20 million head, less than one-third of Muyuan's. Muyuan's core advantage lies in its extreme cost structure under the full self-raising model; its 2024 full cost was 2-3 RMB/kg lower than the industry average, allowing it to remain profitable even when pork prices dipped to 14 RMB/kg, whereas most smallholders and small-to-medium farms were losing money to the point of liquidating their stock. Future competition focus will shift from domestic production capacity to overseas markets and intelligent efficiency.