News
USGC gains attention from China
By United States Grains Council
Key benchmarking directives, developed by the United States Grains Council to aid in dealing with a deadly disease in hogs, has attracted the attention of China's Ministry of Agriculture.
February 28, 2008
The U.S. Grains Council’s swine benchmarking initiatives have attracted the positive attention of the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture in dealing with porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome (PRRS) related issues.
In an effort to combat PRRS in the Chinese pork industry, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture has initiated a China National Pork Industry Technology Support Project aimed at identifying technology constraints in the country’s swine industry. Widespread PRRS has caused pork shortages throughout the Mainland and has been blamed for increasing domestic pork prices.
Jason Yan, technical program director at the USGC Beijing office, was recently asked to participate in the project’s introductory meeting, which gathered together researchers and producers to work on preparing a survey list and reporting format to be used when dealing with future PRRS cases.
"The Council’s benchmarking program and the list of technologies that the Council is working on to improve our partner farms was used as the main reference for the first survey, which will be conducted by the project team," said Cary Sifferath, director of the USGC China office.
Sifferath said Yan’s reputation in developing the Council’s swine benchmarking program is the reason he was asked to take part in the project. The Council will follow the work of the China National Pork Industry Technology Support Project to examine the quality of the project’s programs.
Meanwhile, USGC will continue to look for opportunities in which it can have an even broader impact on the Chinese pork industry than the Council has had in the past.
