First consignment of British breeding pigs exported to Cambodia by Yorkshire firm

Mong Reththy, owner of the Mong Reththy Group of companies.

Friday 16th January 2009

THE first consignment of British breeding pigs ever exported to Cambodia has been delivered by a Yorkshire-based international breeding company.

The £1m deal will see ACMC of Driffield deliver a total of 600 genetically- advanced breeding pigs as part of a 20-year franchise agreement.

ACMC’s special Meidam and Volante damlines and Vantage sirelines, plus boars representing all three breeds, have been sent to a new £3.3m unit specially set up on a five-hectare site.

It will be home to a nucleus herd and has been established by a new company – M’s Pig ACMC (Cambodia) Ltd – set up by the Mong Reththy Group, a large organisation with interests in civil engineering, construction and shipping as well as agriculture.

ACMC has a shareholding in the new company.

The self-contained breeding unit will eventually supply enough commercial AC1 sows to produce 1.1m slaughter pigs annually and provide employment for thousands of people in rural areas.

The project will also involve a feed-milling operation with a projected output of 330,000 tonnes a year and a slaughter/processing plant producing Premium Quality Pork for Cambodia’s population, which is expected to grow from 13m to 16m by 2015.

Stephen Curtis, ACMC chairman, negotiated the agreement following a visit in April last year.

Due to the complexity of the order, the stock had to be specially bred to provide the necessary blood-lines.

Cambodia currently imports 2,000 pigs a day from neighbouring countries – principally Thailand – to meet domestic demand.

It urgently wants to increase its own output through an education project designed to improve production methods and health standards, and use improved stock.

Interestingly, Cambodia will be importing genes, albeit much modified, originally sourced from the Far East.

The prolific Chinese Meishan was brought into Europe more than 20 years ago and ACMC used those genetics to create a new breed, the Meidam, to boost productivity.

The Meidam is selected with 16 functioning teats and produces 15pc more milk than conventional European lines, enabling it to rear many more pigs.

In Europe, the AC1 has been shown to produce up to 30 pigs per sow a year.

ACMC believes it is the only company that has managed to incorporate this ability while maintaining high-quality lean carcases in the finishing generation. This is what appealed to the Cambodians.

By special licence, the breeding stock was transhipped through Bangkok airport. Their arrival – seen by the Cambodian media as an historical event – was attended by Dr Oknha Mong Reththy, chief executive of the MRT Group, Stephen Curtis, chairman of ACMC, Steve Buckley director of investment from the UK Embassy in Bangkok, and Sry Thamarong, Minister Attached to the Prime Minister of Cambodia.