Home » Business » The largest pig farm in the world is already in operation… In a 26-story building. It will produce one million animals a year

The largest pig farm in the world is already in operation… In a 26-story building. It will produce one million animals a year

On the outskirts of the city of Azhou in the Chinese province of Hubei stands an impressive glass-fronted building that, at first glance, looks like a modern apartment complex or an office building for a large company. It is in fact the largest pig farm in the world, and it is already in operation.

At 26 floors, it will be the largest single-building pig producer in the world, with the capacity to raise and slaughter more than 1.2 million pigs a year, according to The Guardian.

This was the answer found to answer the incessant demand for pork, the most appreciated animal protein in the country, which continues to grow exponentially.

The real skyscraper began production in October, with the company that owns the space, Hubei Zhongxin Kaiwei Modern Livestock Farming, reporting receiving the first 3,700 piglets at the ‘farm’ earlier this month.

Zhongxin Kaiwei is investing in the agricultural sector for the first time, having started his career as an investor in the cement sector: he has factories in several provinces, one of which is next to the new pig farm.

Initially the company’s idea was to invest in ready meals, but the strategy was changed after the downturn in the construction sector in China due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Jin Lin, the company’s CEO, says he saw modern agriculture as a “promising” industry and also an opportunity to build using the company’s concrete materials.

In reality, what appears to be a single building that makes up the farm is actually two spaces, with a total area of ​​800,000 m2 and a capacity for 650,000 animals.

It cost more than €475 million and features gas, climate control, controlled ventilation and a state-of-the-art electrical power system, which activates more than 30,000 power points at the click of a button in the control room.

The farm is ‘green’, as animal waste will be used to produce biogas, which in turn is used to generate electricity and hot water on the farm. To enter each day, workers are subjected to multiple rounds of disinfection and undergo various tests and medical checks, with the aim of reducing the likelihood of disease transmission.

Incidentally, many specialists argue that farms of this type, with intensive production, are more at risk of pandemics. “They can reduce interaction between pets and domesticated animals, but if a disease gets in, it can spread among the animals like wildfire,” explains Matthew Hayek, a professor of environmental studies at New York University.

China has made efforts to increase its domestic production of pork, as this country alone consumes half of the world’s entire production of this protein. In addition to growing demand, the country took a hit in this market between 2018 and 2020, with African swine fever outbreaks killing more than 100 million animals.

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