Beijing, Dec 12, 2014
—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is making a $10 million equity investment in Shandong Hekangyuan Poultry Breeding Company to support food safety and rural development in China.
IFC’s investment will help increase Hekangyuan’s day-old duck and broiler production capacity to 165 million and 90 million per annum, respectively, in the rural areas of Shandong, Jiangsu, and Hebei provinces. The company is expected to be one of the top three breeding companies in China upon the completion of the project.
Hekangyuan is able to breed healthier, higher quality ducks and broilers with fewer antibiotics due to an efficient production system that helps increase incomes by cutting costs on feed and medicine.
“IFC’s funding and global expertise will help us archive our vision to become a leader in this competitive industry,’’ said Meng Qingli, Chairman, Hekangyuan. “We are committed to enhancing food safety in China by promoting better breeding technologies and standards.”
Poultry is an important source of protein in China. The country accounts for around 70 percent of global duck meat output and consumption. However, the highly fragmented industry is exposed to risks including poor hygiene standards, inadequate bio-security, and over-use of antibiotics.
“The project will help supply safe protein and nutrition to Chinese families and improve prosperity for thousands of farms at the same time,” said Simon Andrews, IFC’s Country Manager for China, Korea, and Mongolia, at a signing ceremony in Jinan. “We are keen to support partners like Hekangyuan with capital and knowledge in order to promote sustainable and inclusive rural development in China.”
The project will create 1200 additional jobs in Hekangyuan’s farms and reach 23,000 more farmers across the supply chain by the end of 2016.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. Working with private enterprises in about 100 countries, we use our capital, expertise, and influence to help eliminate extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity. In FY14, we provided more than $22 billion in financing to improve lives in developing countries and tackle the most urgent challenges of development. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
.
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