Mr Xianfu Zhu, Chairman and CEO of Zhongpin, said, "In addition to increasing our brand identity, core competencies, product lines, and production capabilities, this new business line has two other important benefits. First is an expected increase in our return on investment, which is one of our primary financial goals. The second benefit is further yield from the hogs we use in our pork production, since premium pork oil will be a new co-product for us. We believe that our customers, company, and shareholders should be enhanced by our new product line."

The new plant was designed to use state-of-the-art manufacturing processes, including the most modern process engineering and integrated information technology advances, which are similar to those used in Zhongpin's most recent pork production plants.

Zhongpin's premium pork oil will be sold through the company's existing sales channels to institutional, wholesale, and retail customers. So far, Zhongpin has completed pre-production contracts with institutional and wholesale customers.

The plant's designed capacity will be 20,000 metric tons of premium pork oil each year. Construction began in September 2009. The total investment in the new project will be about RMB 38 million or US$ 5.6 million./p>