Chapter 140 Cut in Half (Medium Cup)
The spring breeze in February is like scissors.
Amidst this howling cold wind, something started to ferment rapidly in South China F4, which is dominated by Lingnan, Fujian, Guizhou and Qiongzhou.
Starting on February 5th.
The prices of fish feed, shrimp and crab feed, pig feed, chicken and duck feed in South China have fallen slightly.
This is the first time that domestic feed market prices have fallen since the beginning of 2025.
Among them, eel fattening feed fell by 15%, juvenile shrimp and crab feed fell by 12%, adult shrimp and crab feed fell by 9%, piglet and chicken feed fell by 3%, and sow and laying hen feed fell by 1.5%.
Other high-protein fish feeds have also fallen by 10 to 15%.
The main force behind lowering the market price of feed this time is Haid Group.
After signing a cooperation agreement with Hailufeng Company, they took quick action in November last year and inoculated 60,000 acres of Egyptian pond lice that month, and then increased the number by 20,000 to 30,000 acres every month.
As the first batch of Egyptian pond lice reached the fish collection standards in February this year, Haid Group immediately started the fishmeal and fish oil production line.
In just five days, Haid Group produced 50,000 tons of fish meal and 16,500 tons of fish oil.
These fishmeal and fish oil are used in various feed productions, reducing costs to varying degrees.
For example, the cost of eel fattening feed with 60% crude protein content has dropped from 13,000 yuan per ton to about 7,000 yuan per ton.
That's why Haid Group dared to lower its wholesale price by 15%. Currently, the wholesale price of Haid Group's eel fattening feed has been reduced from 13,600 yuan per ton to 11,500 yuan per ton, a drop of 2,100 yuan.
Yangcheng, Nansha District.
As a large number of farmers in the market near the headquarters of Haid Group, they are near the water on a first-come-first-served basis and can purchase freshly baked and low-priced feed immediately.
At the feed wholesale point of Haid Group, there was actually a lively scene of overcrowding. This is a rare situation.
A middle-aged man in a down jacket, holding a cigarette in his mouth, shouted: "Dazhang, bring me 20 tons of newly released eel feed."
"Old Mo, didn't you just buy feed a few days ago?" The store manager Zhang came over with a small book.
Upon hearing this, Lao Mo also looked depressed: "Hey! You are so unreasonable! Can I return the feed I bought a few days ago?"
"Don't think about it, I don't know the decision of the headquarters! Do you want new feed?" Dazhang spread his hands, expressing his helplessness.
"Yes, why not?" Lao Mo was just saying angrily. He knew how high the price of feed on the market was now.
Last year, not only the prices of fishmeal and fish oil soared, but the prices of soybean meal and corn also increased significantly. This resulted in major domestic feed manufacturers having to simultaneously increase the wholesale price of feed.
"20 tons, Nansha, Lao Mo, address... phone number... Okay, I'll send it to you in the afternoon." As he said that, Da Zhang suddenly remembered something and took out a brochure from the application counter and handed it to Lao Mo: < br>
"Old Mo, please take this technical manual. This new feed uses a new formula. The eel breeding cycle is the same as that of Hailufeng Company. You know, right?"
"Nonsense, of course I know." Lao Mo took the brochure and asked: "But your prices are so cheap, why won't Hailufeng Company cause trouble for you?"
Dazhang reminded again: "Our company has cooperation with them, and for your later fishy removal feed, you need to purchase feed from Hailufeng Company."
"What? Their feed is so expensive, why don't you produce it? And it's hard to grab! Hailufeng Company's eel feed has been taken over by those Chaoshan and Fuluo people." Lao Mo complained.
Da Zhang smiled and shook his head: "What do you think? Don't worry! This time Hailufeng Company will not make ordinary fattening feed. Their production can be used by eel farms across the country."
This market segment situation is also a tacit understanding between Haid Group and Hailufeng Company.
Haid Group is not qualified to refuse Hailufeng Company's request. After all, giving it a market for fattening feed is already taking care of Haid Group.
Hailufeng Company must occupy the high-end products in the feed industry to maintain its high profits.
This kind of product that does not require much production but has high profits is not only very profitable, but also not susceptible to sudden changes in the market.
For example, now, the price of eel fattening feed has dropped to 11,500 yuan per ton, but the price of eel fish-free feed is still as high as 17,000 yuan per ton. However, the production costs of the two are similar.
Lao Mo only thinks from the perspective of a farmer. He naturally hopes that the feed price will be as low as possible.
It's a pity that Hailufeng Company reaps the technological dividends.
If I can monopolize the market, why should I cut prices?
Lao Mo just wanted to continue complaining.
But Da Zhang had already turned around to receive another guest.
"This boss! What feed do you want?"
The middle-aged man in a leather jacket frowned and asked: "Will your new feed increase the earthy smell?"
Dazhang explained with a smile: "Don't worry! As long as you stop using it for two months before it is released from the market or the pond, it will basically be normal and there will be no obvious earthy smell."
"Really?" The man in the leather jacket still had doubts.
"How dare a company as big as ours do such a thing that destroys its own brand?"
The man in the leather jacket scratched his hair: "Do you want to stop using chicken feed? My yellow-feathered chickens have only been raised for more than fifty days!"
"It would have been better if you had said that you were raising chickens." Da Zhang smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Then, yellow-feather chicken No. 3 and adult chicken No. 4 are cheaper than before, 100 yuan cheaper per ton, normal Just feed it.”
"Can it be cheaper?"
"Brother, our feed is already the cheapest in the market. If you go to other feed factories and take a look, they are generally cheaper than ours."
The two argued for more than ten minutes before ordering 50 tons of feed.
Although the new feed can only be used in phases, for farmers and even large breeding plants who have been suffering from high feed prices for a long time, it is like dew after a long drought.
In particular, many of the 271 medium and large pig farms in the Lingnan area with more than 10,000 pigs in stock have direct cooperative relationships with Haid Group.
Haid Group also knows that these large customers are the core, and notified these medium and large pig farms in advance as soon as the new feed came out.
Of course, for those pig farms that have their own feed mills, Haid Group will not ask for trouble.
Although a large part of the pig feed is corn extruded feed, during the breeding process, you must not eat corn or soybean meal alone, otherwise you will suffer from malnutrition, which will affect the growth rate and quality.
Pig farms are definitely very welcoming of cheap feed.
Haid Group also sent people to provide technical guidance to prevent them from using it indiscriminately, which would increase the earthy smell of the pork.
over time.
Haid Group's new feed has quickly replaced the products of other feed manufacturers in South China, unless it is some feed products that Haid Group is not involved in, such as ornamental fish, golden turtles, cat and dog pet feed, or products produced by Hailufeng Company The special feed was not affected.
Haid Group, which has multiple production bases across the country, only attacks in South China. The reason is that the current cultivation of Egyptian pond lice is limited to South China.
Other feed production bases must wait for the fishmeal to be transported before they can start producing new formula feeds.
But just in Southern China, it brings terrible pressure to other feed manufacturers.
Originally, everyone's prices were very close to the cost line, but as a result, Haid Group's product prices dropped significantly.
Especially for aquatic product feeds, the decline rate is between 10% and 15%. This suddenly makes the aquatic product feeds of other feed factories dry up.
Among the top ten domestic feed manufacturers, several are headquartered in the Lingnan area, such as Hengxing Group, Guangdong Group, and Aohua Group.
It can only be said that they are too insensitive to market changes.
They didn't discover the problem until Haida Group's new feed was launched on a large scale, and now they are passive.
A port city in Leizhou Peninsula.
The headquarters of Hengxing Group is located here.
"Chairman, this is what our market research department has just collected. Please take a look at it." Looking at the report in his hand, Chen Dan's face became more solemn: "Haida Group? Hailufeng Company? Oh...it turns out to be the R&D one. A company with artificial eel breeding technology..."
The deputy general manager, Chen Gang, who is also Chen Dan’s son, also had a serious expression on his face: “Dad, although we have our own aquaculture industry, feed is also our core industry in Hengxing. If we don’t find a way, our feed will be sold by Haid Group. Crush.”
"It seems that the key to this matter lies in Hailufeng Company. Breeding Egyptian pond lice as feed raw materials? This is indeed a good idea." Chen Dan put down the document and squinted in thought.
"Dad, we can also breed Egyptian pond lice." Chen Gang suggested anxiously.
Hearing this, Chen Dan shook his head: "You think things are too simple. Why did Haid Group choose to cooperate with Hailufeng Company?"
Chen Gang frowned and said, "Huh? Breeding Egyptian pond lice shouldn't be difficult, right?"
Du Haitang, another deputy general manager in charge of aquaculture, quickly explained to Shaodong's family: "Vice President Chen does not know that Egyptian pond lice are indeed easy to breed, especially for our Lingnan area, but it can be done for three months. A yield of 12 to 15 tons per mu can currently only be achieved by using No. 4 feed from Hailufeng Company. ”
Chen Gang blurted out without even thinking: "Then we can just buy their feed and then imitate it?"
Du Haitang couldn't help complaining in his heart, but he still explained with a smile on his face: "Vice President Chen, Hailufeng Company has registered hundreds of patent formulas for the special feed formula for feeding Egyptian pond lice. We are not a small company. , once it is mass-produced, even if it is used by ourselves, it will be discovered by the other party, and we will be taken to court by the other party.”
"Hundreds of patented formulas?" Chen Gang's eyes widened: "Damn! Did they block all the formulas for Egyptian pond lice?"
"Yes! Even if we make fine adjustments, there is no way to avoid it. In the confirmation of infringement of the feed formula patent, as long as it is highly similar and specific ingredients are used, it will be considered to constitute infringement." Another vice president in charge of the feed industry Manager Xiao He, as a professional, knows better.
Within the patent protection of feed formula, whether it constitutes infringement mainly depends on the similarity of ingredients and the similarity of feeding efficacy.
It’s not like just adding some soybean meal and corn, it’s a new formula.
The trace ingredients are very important.
This is also the key means for Hailufeng Company to build a patent moat, which is to incorporate various similar special trace functional ingredients into the patented formula.
There are hundreds of patented formulas, and there is always one that can block the imitation formulas of other companies. If you want to bypass the ingredients of the patented formula, you can only achieve it by weakening the efficacy of the feed.
The purpose of imitating the formula is to obtain the same effect, so what's the point of changing it to a low-profile version?
Chen Dan opened his eyes and made a decision on the spot: "Xiao He, go to Shanmei as soon as possible and negotiate with Hailufeng Company. We can accept the same conditions as Haid Group."
"Okay, Chairman." Xiao He nodded.
In addition to Hengxing Group, Guangdong Group and Aohua Group also responded and took advantage of their distance advantage in Pengcheng to send negotiation teams to Shanmei first.
As the initiator, Haid Group certainly knows that other feed manufacturers will not sit still and wait for death, but Haid Group, which has already seized the opportunity, is not too worried.
Because the first mouthful of soup in this opportunity will be eaten by Haid Group.
Even if other feed manufacturers obtain technical authorization from Hailufeng Company, it would take at least three or four months to adjust their production lines and research new formulas.
Moreover, Haid Group is a very thief. They learned from Hailufeng Company and quickly registered hundreds of patents in the past few months. These patents are related to feed formulas using Egyptian pond lice fish meal and fish oil.
When other companies want to produce feed using Egyptian pond lice fish meal and fish oil, they will most likely infringe on the relevant patents of Haid Group.
Other feed manufacturers will soon discover this problem. In order to quickly produce new feed, they can only turn to Haid Group. Although this is a bit excessive, in business, sometimes you have to use any means.
Of course, Haid Group also knows that this kind of thing should not be taken too far. When the time comes, it will be enough to ask other feed manufacturers to pay patent fees. Their company can not only make money while lying down, but also avoid pushing these feed manufacturers into opposition.
In fact, patents are a double-edged sword for large groups.
Used well, it can help the company's development.
If used incorrectly, it can easily arouse hostility from friends and businessmen, and may also lead to inertia within the company.
It was only in the past twenty years that China began to pay attention to patents.
More than ten years ago, many companies did not pay attention to patents. They not only copied each other's information from domestic companies, but also copied the patents of foreign companies.
But that era of barbaric growth is long gone.
If you just copy other companies' patents now, the consequences will be very serious.
Just when major domestic feed manufacturers were sending negotiation teams to Hailufeng Company or Haid Group.
There have also been some reactions in the international market.
Although Haid Group currently only produces 50,000 tons of fishmeal.
But don’t forget, this is just the first five days of February, and production will continue after that.
Although Haid Group is already controlling the scale of Egyptian pond lice farming, it will still produce 150,000 to 200,000 tons of fish meal every month and 1.8 to 2.4 million tons of fish meal every year.
This scale accounts for about one-third of the world's total fishmeal production capacity.
The scale of domestically imported fishmeal each year is approximately 1.4 to 1.8 million tons.
In other words, in the future, domestic fishmeal will no longer need to be imported on a large scale, and can even be exported in the opposite direction. This will be a fatal blow to the global fishmeal market.
Even last year, when global fishmeal production capacity dropped by 30% due to the severe production cuts in Peruvian fisheries, international fishmeal prices also fell in response to Haid Group's fishmeal production capacity.
Whether it is Hokkaido fishmeal, Peruvian fishmeal, Newfoundland fishmeal, or North Sea fishmeal, prices are plummeting.
In less than a week, the international price of fishmeal has been cut in half.
Peruvian fishmeal, with a crude protein content of 67%, has plummeted from 17,000 yuan per ton at its peak last year to about 8,300 yuan per ton. However, the price has not yet stabilized, and instead continues to decline.
The main reason for this situation is that as the world's largest fishmeal importer, it consumes one-third of the world's fishmeal production capacity every year. Now this market is suddenly no longer needed. The consequences are very serious.
Lima, the capital of Peru.
Originally, many fishmeal production companies were planning to go fishing in advance to avoid extreme weather and severe production cuts like last year.
However, dozens of companies engaged in offshore fishing stopped at this time.
Inside the office building of a fishmeal production company in the Port of Lima.
The head of its international market research department hurriedly knocked on the door and came in, holding a document just returned from East Asia. He said with an unusually solemn expression: "Mr. Oster, I think it is necessary to reduce the scale of sea fishing this year. ”
As the general manager of the Peruvian branch of AustralGroup S.A.A, Austin Aust also had a headache after reading the document.
Holding that document and looking left and right for more than ten minutes, Austin Oster knew that trouble was coming and quickly prepared to call back to the headquarters.
However, the call from the headquarters was called in advance.
Ring ring ring…
"Hi, I'm Austin."
"Austin, the headquarters has decided to reduce the fishing volume in Peruvian fisheries this year, and plans to reduce it by 50%."
"So many?" Austin was shocked.
"The headquarters has just studied the prospects of new technologies in East Asia and found that the other party's production costs are very low. We cannot win a price war. We must respond. Cutting production in advance now can slow down the decline in fishmeal prices."
< br>
"I understand."
Copuinca, Diamond Fisheries, and Exalmar Fisheries, also in the Port of Lima, have also made decisions to reduce production.
Other large fishmeal producers around the world include Lucia's Norebo Group; Chile's Kolpeska AG; Denmark's Skagen FF; America's Omega Proteins; Japan's Nissui; and Siam The United Group and others have all made decisions to reduce production to varying degrees.
Even some fishmeal manufacturers that produce and sell their own products are considering adjusting their product mix, and at the same time, they must be prepared to be hit by a large amount of cheap fishmeal and fish oil.
After all, fishmeal and fish oil are highly interrelated industries. Even those engaged in the deep processing of fish oil will probably not be immune to this market impact.
In order to survive, many companies are already thinking of ways to further process their products.
(End of chapter)