Guangdong Haid is spending CNY 500 million (USD 74.4 million, EUR 66.1 million) on a new 400,000-metric-ton factory in Jiangmen, Guangdong Province, China, which it expects to complete by 2021.
The company claims the aquafeed processing plant will be the biggest facility of its kind in southern China.
The plant will primarily produce high-value feed for the shrimp industry, according to a company media presentation marking the commencement of the CNY 300 million (USD 44.7 million, EUR 39.7 million) first phase of the project.
Combined with recent announcements of new factories in Vietnam and Ecuador, Haid appears to be taking a large bet on increasing long-term demand for shrimp in China. Last year, Haid opened an aquafeed and pig feed plant in Vietnam with a total annual capacity 50,000 tons. The company has also has broken ground on a new processing plant with an annual capacity for 240,000 tons in the coastal province of Guaya, Ecuador’s most populous region. Haid has not publicly said how much the plant will cost to build, but the Ecuadorian government signaled in 2016 that the firm would invest CNY 10 million (USD 1.5 million, EUR 1.3 million) in the facility.
Separately, Haid has said it will invest CNY 4 billion (USD 595.6 million, EUR 528.8 million) in 13 overseas projects over the next five years, according to Li Yong Qiang, the company’s head of international investment. The investments are part of the company’s alignment with China’s “One Belt, One Road” strategy, according to Li.
Many firms involved in China’s quickly consolidating feed industry have recently been hedging their bets on aquaculture by building capacity to produce feed for China’s huge pig herd, the world’s largest. Guangdong Haid, one of the largest players in China’s aquafeed sector, is also producing pigs and pig feed through cooperation deals with local government across southern and central China collectively worth nearly CNY 4 billion (USD 595.6 million, EUR 528.8 million).
Haid, scored stronger growth in pig feed in 2017 compared to its aquafeed sales, but since then, China’s pork sector has been convulsed by an outbreak of African swine fever. Nonetheless, many financial experts following the industry have predicted long-term growth in the sector, as well as continued consolidation.
