Muyuan Foods Reports 11-Fold Profit Surge and Announces RMB 5 Billion Interim Dividend in 2025 H1

On August 21, Muyuan Foods, known as the “Moutai of Pork,” released its semi-annual report and the “Announcement on the 2025 Semi-Annual Profit Distribution Plan.”

In the first half of 2025, Muyuan Foods achieved operating revenue of RMB 76.46 billion, a year-on-year increase of 34.46%; net profit reached RMB 10.53 billion, up 1,169.77% year on year; and net profit excluding non-recurring items amounted to RMB 10.68 billion, representing a year-on-year growth of 1,115.32%, more than an 11-fold increase.

More notably, Muyuan Foods announced a proposed profit distribution plan for the first half of 2025: a cash dividend of RMB 9.32 (including tax) per 10 shares to all shareholders, totaling RMB 5 billion, which accounts for 47.50% of the company’s net profit for the first half of 2025.

It is reported that, after adding the net profit for the first half of 2025 to the undistributed profits at the beginning of the year and deducting the profits already distributed to shareholders during the current period, Muyuan Foodstuff’s cumulative undistributed profits amounted to RMB 59.72 billion as of the end of June 2025, while the parent company’s cumulative undistributed profits stood at RMB 9.07 billion as of the same date.

In addition, in the first half of 2025, Muyuan spent approximately RMB 1.11 billion on share repurchases. The total amount for cash dividends and share repurchases in the first half of the year reached RMB 6.11 billion, accounting for 58.04% of the net profit for the period.

Behind the substantial profit surge and generous dividend payouts of Muyuan Foods lies, on one hand, the near-doubling of its livestock farming business.

In the first half of 2025, Muyuan Foods slaughtered 11.4148 million pigs, a year-on-year increase of 110.87%. With continuous expansion of sales channels, the capacity utilization rate reached 78.72% during the period.

It is reported that in the first half of 2025, Muyuan Foods Co., Ltd. sold a total of 46.91 million live pigs, including 38.394 million market hogs, 8.291 million piglets, and 225,000 breeding pigs. The company slaughtered a total of 11.4148 million live pigs, achieved sales of 1.2736 million tons of fresh and frozen pork products, and generated operating revenue of RMB 19.345 billion from its slaughtering and meat processing businesses.

This growth was also partly attributable to the stability of the industry. In the first half of 2025, supply and demand in the pig farming sector were basically balanced, with live hog prices fluctuating within a narrow range, mostly staying at RMB 14–15 per kilogram. As a result, the hog farming industry as a whole maintained a moderate level of profitability.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first half of 2025, China's hog slaughter volume reached 366.19 million head, a year-on-year increase of 2.24 million head, or 0.6%; pork production amounted to 30.20 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 390,000 tons, or 1.3%.

In late June 2025, the national live pig inventory in China stood at 424.47 million head, a decrease of 2.96 million head, or 0.69%, from the end of the previous year. Among these, the breeding sow inventory was 40.43 million head, down by 350,000 head, or 0.86%, from the end of the previous year.

On the other hand, there is a decline in costs.

In June 2025, Muyuan Foods’ fully loaded cost for live pig farming was below RMB 12.1/kg. The company will continue to reduce costs and enhance efficiency by focusing on health management, breeding stock improvement, nutritional formulations, and intelligent applications, striving to achieve an annual average cost target of RMB 12/kg.

Cost reduction is inseparable from lowering feed costs; in recent years, Muyuan Foods has been leveraging synthetic biology to drive cost reductions and enhance efficiency.

VCBeat learned from Muyuan Foods that the company’s cost reduction in 2024 was partly attributable to feed costs, which may have accounted for half of the savings. In 2025, cost reductions were driven not only by feed factors but also by improved production efficiency, including better herd health, higher meat yield, increased survival rates, and greater average daily weight gain, all of which contributed to lower overall costs.

According to a review, the collaboration between Muyuan Foods and Westlake University in recent years has attracted significant attention, focusing on reducing feed costs through synthetic biology:

In February 2023, Henan Muyuan Anliang Synthetic Biotechnology Co., Ltd. was established, jointly founded by Muyuan Foods and Element Drive, a biosynthesis company incubated by Westlake University, to vigorously develop low-protein diet technologies that replace soybean meal with amino acids.

In March 2023, the Nanyang Municipal People's Government took the lead in joining forces with Muyuan Group and the Hangzhou West Lake Education Foundation to establish the West Lake-Muyuan Institute of Synthetic Biology.

In April 2025, Phase I of the Muyuan Anliang Synthetic Biology Industrial Park commenced trial operations, marking a major project for the industrialization of R&D outcomes from the collaboration between Muyuan Group and Westlake University.

It is understood that feed costs account for 70% of the total expenses in pig farming, with corn and soybean meal—the primary raw materials in feed—comprising approximately 90% of these costs. Fluctuations in the prices of corn and soybean meal directly impact feed costs, thereby affecting the operational profitability of pig farming.

With the rapid development of the livestock and poultry farming industry, the severe shortage of feed resources, particularly protein feed resources, has necessitated the annual import of large quantities of protein feeds such as soybean meal and fishmeal to bridge the gap. This has resulted in China’s external dependence on soybean meal exceeding 80%, seriously affecting the healthy development of the livestock and poultry farming industry.

Therefore, reducing the use of soybean meal in the aquaculture and livestock industry is of great significance for ensuring its healthy development.

Muyuan Foods also stated that its foray into this field is not solely aimed at reducing soybean meal usage, but primarily driven by feed cost-effectiveness. Given the high reliance on imported soybean meal and its price sensitivity to supply fluctuations, identifying alternative amino acids to replace soybean meal would allow the company to mitigate its exposure to soybean meal price volatility.

“Since soybean meal primarily provides protein and essential nutrients for pig growth, replacing it with amino acids can still provide adequate nutrition for the herd, thereby helping to reduce costs,” stated Muyuan Foods.