The delegates, who met with Paul Anderson, JSR International Sales Director, Glenn Dams, JSR Managing Director and Dr Grant Walling, Director of Research and Genetics, were keen to gain a greater insight into the work that JSR are undertaking in China, including the building and stocking of a state–of–the–art 900–head nucleus facility situated in the Xiangfan province.

Xiangfan is in central China, with a good network of airports, railways and highways. It is the national agricultural demonstration area and farming contributes 16.7 per cent of GDP in the region. Currently, six million pigs are slaughtered in the region each year but the plan is to increase this figure to 100 million by year 2020.

Paul Anderson from JSR commented on the delegates visit: “We are delighted to be establishing a JSR Nucleus Herd in this very progressive province of China and we thoroughly enjoyed welcoming the group to Yorkshire. They visited the York Science Park during the morning followed by presentations from both JSR and the Xiangfan delegation.

“The group watched a presentation by JSR that focused on developments in genetics and commercial pig production in the UK and overseas. It also reinforced why JSR were chosen to supply the Xiangfan region of China; who are looking to improve the productivity of their herds through using modern JSR genetics, which are the base for their pig production expansion programme. The video presentation from Xiangfan demonstrated the natural resources, infrastructure, the main industries plus a guide to investment in Xiangfan.

“In the evening we had dinner in The Red Chilli, Chinese Restaurant in York, which was attended by the Right Honorable Lord Mayor of York, Councillor Susan Galloway, Jean Pierre-Garnier of the British Pig Executive and Stephan Stahl of the UK Trade & Investment.

“It was an important business trip designed to promote the north east of the UK and at JSR we are proud to represent the area globally and often host visitors from around the world.”

The group of delegates included: Li Xinhua - Mayor of Xiangfan Municipal Government, Wang Peng - Director of Xiangfan Investment Promotion Bureau, Wang Shijin - Deputy Director of the Administration Committee of Xiangfan Industry Development Zone, Yang Shuming - Secretary of CPC Fancheng District Committee, Xiangfan and Zhuo Yue - Director of the Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Bureau of Xiangfan.