Jan Cortanbach, CTO of Royal De Heus China, an investor in Wellhope, inspects one of its facilities in March. (Photo provided to China Daily)
Wellhope Agri-Tech is going full steam ahead to dominate the animal feed industry
Wang Zhenyong has just applied for his fourth passport. That's because as overseas business vice-president of Wellhope Agri-Tech Joint Stock Co, China's leading feed producer and broiler meat processor, he travels a lot and the pages of his passport get filled up quickly with visas and arrival stamps.
Wang's annual business travels include, but are not limited to, five visits to India, four trips to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, three landings each in Russia and Iran, one visit each to Nepal and Uganda－all to expand Wellhope's global footprint.
He notches up 300,000 miles (480,000 kilomiteres) every year. He is a top customer for many airlines. By the end of this October, Wang helped set up three joint ventures in India, Iran and the Philippines.
And another two are under negotiation. International markets have already contributed over 400 million yuan ($57.9 million) in revenue to Wellhope.
Founded in 1995, the Shanghai-listed Wellhope's January-September revenue reached 8.48 billion yuan, up 15 percent year-on-year.
On Oct 20, the company announced that it invested 24 million yuan in a feed production and pig breeding facility in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. The joint venture would hire around 500 local workers, according to Wang.
This will help Wellhope to elbow its way into the local market that has a population of over 100 million.
"The Philippines is one of our targets overseas as it has shortage of meat supply but abundant water, soil and labor. Southeast Asia, South Asia and East Africa are on top of our agenda," said Jin Weidong, chairman of Wellhope.
The company has tied up with Southeast Feeds Specialist Corp in the Philippines. "We are grateful for Wellhope's trust and we would never infringe on Wellhope's benefit. And after retirement, our successors will also write such a guarantee," said George Co, general manager of Southeast Feeds.
Jin expects international markets will account for 500,000 metric tons of feed sales and net profit will reach 100 million yuan before 2018.
"The international sector generally contributes over one-third of the revenue for big names in the field such as Charoen Pokphand Group, Cargill and ABN. In the following 10 years, our aim is to be the top 10 in feed industry around the world," said Jin.
Wellhope is among the first few Chinese agri-tech companies that started to expand globally over a decade ago. In early 2005, the company signed a joint venture contract with the Vaidya family in Nepal, an influential industrial player in the region.
The Nepalese venture proved to be a big success in the following years and set the benchmark for the feed business in the country.
