The Shanxi Coking Coal Group has signed an agreement with Shuanghui Group to work together on pig slaughter and processing and sees China's largest coking company enter the food business as it tries to diversify its interests as the coal business in China consolidates, according to a report in Want China Times.

The two companies are to build the slaughterhouse and processing factory in Taiyuan, the provincial capital of Shanxi.

The plant will slaughter about 2 million pigs and produce 100,000 tonnes of meat products pa year, with sales estimated at RMB3-4 billion yuan (US$470-630 million).

The report says the factory will be opened in about a year's time.