China 'backyard' pig farmers squeezed as sector scales up

Beijing

WALKING through swarms of flies at his piggery on the outskirts of Beijing, Liu Jin shows off 1,500 hormone-free black hogs raised for China's growing organic meat market.

Mr Liu employs a dozen people to look after the swine that are kept in indoor sties and outdoor pens - the type of large-scale operation China hopes will one day replace the millions of "backyard" farms across the country. "Even ordinary people care a lot about whether their food has hormones," said Mr Liu, describing his pigs as "green".

About 90 per cent of C…