Pushing pork
In Yunlin’s Mailiao, the Taiquan Farm has over 10,000 pigs. The operation includes a feed factory, a pig farm and a slaughterhouse. Five years ago owner Lin Shulin asked his nephew Xu Jialun, who had experience working for organic groceries, to help lead an effort to create a Taiquan brand so they could sidestep the middlemen and achieve higher profit margins.
With no experience in marketing meat, Xu took the initiative to seek out Wang. After negotiations, Taiquan became a shareholder in Kawa, and Kawa became something like a brand field marshal, involved in the entire production process.
To bolster its brands, Taiquan has spent more than NT$10 million to create drug-free feed supply channels, including dedicated vehicles. Starting by selecting the strongest piglets, it forsakes the use of drugs throughout the entire rearing process, relying instead on nutritious feed to raise resistance to disease. It insists on allowing the pigs to naturally mature over the course of seven months, and even lets them enjoy classical music and water massages.
Yet early on, there was little demand for these fastidiously raised high-quality pigs other than for the two jowl cuts used in Matsuzaka pork. Kawa and Taiquan had to sell the rest cheaply on the general market. It wasn’t until last year that they had a change in fortunes and were able to sell out their 100 pigs at full price each month.
With the concern for meat safety that arose last year, Wang was successfully able to turn a crisis into an opportunity. High-quality meat finally captured consumers’ attention, and the company has started breaking even this year.