BEIJING, CHINA – Agriculture technology company Origin Agritech Ltd. announced on Nov. 15 that it has agreed to a joint venture with Sichuan Cloudland Agricultural Science and Technology, a subsidiary of Eos Asia Investments Limited, to expand production of NEC corn into Sichuan Province, China.

An opportune region for animal feed production, Sichuan Province has the largest production of pork and is home to four of the 10 largest hog farming companies in China. Nevertheless, Sichuan is only ranked eighth in corn production, which has resulted in a 10-million-tonne per annum deficit in corn for feedstock that must be sourced from other provinces.  

Origin Agritech noted that Sichuan has frequently had the highest corn prices in the country. The regional government has expressed great interest in supporting the growth of Origin Agritech's NEC corn due to its energy density and resource efficiency allowing more hogs to be fed per unit of corn. 

"I am very excited to joint venture with Cloudland and Eos, a legendary investor in China," said Dr. Gengchen Han, Origin Agritech's chairman. "This will allow us to quickly expand our production of corn into Sichuan Province next year and will have a positive impact on revenues and earnings, with little capital requirement due to the favorable government policies and local support of our Cloudland JV partner."