When pigs fly, you say? That day might already be upon us.
Almost 900 Saskatchewan pigs flew across the Pacific Ocean recently, after Saskatoon swine genetics company Fast Genetics sold a shipment of 868 breeding pigs to China.
The pigs, from the company’s facilities near Spiritwood, Sask., included 710 sows and 158 boars. They were first shipped to Manitoba and held in quarantine.
After that, they loaded onto a plane and delivered to Zigong Tequ Pig Farming Company in Chengdu, China.
Grant Wilson, marketing manager with Fast Genetics, said the pigs reached their final destination in mid-August.
Fast Genetics and its parent company HyLife Genetics in La Broquerie, Man., have been building business connections in China for more than five years.
Fast’s first shipment of live animals to China in 2008 formed the basis of a joint-venture partnership between HyLife and local Chinese partners called Tianzow Breeding.
Today, Tianzow Breeding has more than 12,000 purebred sows in China.
Fast Genetics supplies genetics to Chinese pig producers via Tianzow.
It also ships animals directly to Chinese customers.
