Pork Commentary May 29, 2012 Return from China

Return from China

Last week in the commentary we wrote of the car accident we had in China.  I am now truly happy to report our return home.  As you read last week Mike Van Schepdael my business partner and vice president of Genesus received significant injuries.  Fortunately he has had a rapid improvement and his recovery continues.    Ron Lane, senior consultant of Genesus in China was also in the accident.  Ron was bruised and black and blue from the accident but despite this he was able to call on his over decade long experience in China to quickly facilitate an excellent Beijing hospital.  Ron then in true Genesus spirit travelled the next day after the accident to work the Nanjing Swine Exhibition on behalf of Genesus.  Ron was like his nickname “Old Dragon” invincible.

                In the past week we also were exposed to the Chinese cultural perspective on surviving such an accident.  “It’s a great omen… strong people, strong genetics, strong pig genetics, etc etc…” The above perspective was good to hear but we’d rather not go to such lengths to receive such accolades. Once again I want to thank all of the people in China that helped us and offered aid to us.  Monita Mo and her people at Best Genetics, James Jiang, Dr. Shen and Gu Ya Ping of COFCO, chairman Wu and the Tiabang Corporation, Giastar Corporation, Norio Itazaki, and Akira Motoyama of Nippon Ham, Wendell Burge of GSH based in Shanghai, Lyle Jones from Osborne Inc, Husong and Rosemary Smart of CSEA.   The doctors and nurses at Peking Union College Hospital were hospitable, professional and knowledgeable.  The take away for us is that as we travel the world we continue to meet wonderful people who have tremendous caring attributes.  It is tough to be involved in a situation like we were in a faraway land but our challenge was made easier by the involvement and support of our customers, colleagues, and medical professionals.  We will appreciate this forever.

Markets

                This past week we have been distracted.  The simple observations we can make is that the U.S. corn market took a hit from what we understand was China delaying deliveries from summer to fall.  Being in China we can see the quest to modernize pig and poultry production which as production increases will lead to greater needs for feed imputes.  Indeed the scale and scope of swine and production projects are so large we hesitate to discuss because the scale is so large they could be perceived as fantasy.  The need to feed 1.3 billion people in itself is a huge undertaking.  When you are in meetings where companies plan on 20 – 2500 sow units this year, the scale and magnitude of a 600 million hog market hits home; short term the hog price in China reflects a pork shortage relative to demand in an economy with increasing per capita income.

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