Pig-Farmer Helps Lift Villagers out of Poverty

Source: CCTV.com| Published: 2018-09-18

Guo Ping is giving an interview. [cctv.com]

A woman gave up her well-paid job 10 years ago to become a farmer and has since led around 5,000 villagers to achieve common prosperity by establishing a pig-breeding cooperative.
There is still a long line of people waiting to buy piglets at the Guo Ping's farm at a time when the price of live pigs in southwest China's Chongqing has dropped by half since the beginning of this year.
For Guo, her main clients are local farmers and dealers from the surrounding provinces, cities and elsewhere.
Many of her dealers have become repeat customers because of the quality of piglets, the wide variety, as well as the reasonable price she offers.
Rongchang and Changbai pigs are the main breeds on Guo's farm.
"The indigenous Rongchang pig is all white, except for its black eyes, which makes it look like the giant panda. So, local villagers also call it Panda Pig," Guo explained.
"Rongchang Pigs has a high percentage of lean meat, and it grows to 110kgs in six months, ready for slaughter," Guo said.
"This is the precious breed on my farm, and it is with the economic profits gained from Rongchang Pigs that has enabled me to expand my farm to today's scale," she added.
Guo used to sell clothes. In 2007 there was an epidemic in her hometown. With many pig farms closing down and the price of pigs plummeting, Guo decided to breed Rongchang pigs on her own.
However, her decision was opposed by her parents and misunderstood by her friends. Villagers even thought she was stupid.
For Guo, she reckoned that the market would recover when the epidemic was under control, and, with a low production, the demand might exceed supply in the coming  year.
In August 2007, Guo spent 3,000 yuan in renting an abandoned pig farm, and bought 200 uninfected Rongchang Piglets and seven sows.
Meanwhile, she also asked for help and advice from expert Huang Daxun, who has rich experience in pig-farming.
In the January 2008, the epidemic of Blue Aural Disease was put under control, and the price of pigs began to rise.
"At that time, the price of pork was relatively high, at 8.9 yuan per 500 gram, and I sold all my 200 piglets straight away," Guo said.
The 200 piglets she sold earned her 130,000 yuan in total.
Meanwhile, when she saw that many dealers came to her farm especially for the  Rongchang Pigs, Guo found a good business opportunity, and decided to transform and focus on breeding Rongchang pigs.
However, owing to shortage of fund and space, she decided to bring local villagers together and join hands in breeding Rongchang pig, so as to help achieve common prosperity among villagers.
Then Guo established the large-scale professional breeding cooperative, where she is in charge of selling, with a 10 yuan price for each piglet.
By the end of 2017, Guo Ping's farm had annually produced 12,000 piglets, with the sales exceeding 110 million yuan.

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