Inside the full industrial chain workshop for white feather chickens in Linyi County, Shandong Province, temperature, humidity, oxygen, light, egg turning, and early warning systems are all managed through intelligent control throughout the entire process. This not only represents a high standard in the hatching field for white feather chickens both domestically and internationally but also brings tangible benefits: the energy recovery system saves 10%-15% in electricity, and unique hatching adjustment technologies can save nearly 20 million eggs annually, reducing hatching costs by over 40 million yuan.
This high-standard workshop is a vivid embodiment of the development of the white feather chicken industry in Linyi County. The white feather chicken industry in the county began in 1988, starting with family-based farming and gradually moving towards scale, subsequently driving the development of related sectors like slaughtering and feed. After 34 years of accumulation, by the end of 2021, the total output value of the white feather chicken industry in the county reached 5.16 billion yuan, marking a historical leap from non-existence to establishment.
However, despite the initial formation of the industrial chain, there are still shortcomings. Starting in 2022, the Linyi County Party Committee and government assessed the situation and precisely focused on the weak links in the industrial chain. Measures such as setting up industrial guidance funds and providing financial credit and insurance have been implemented to promote targeted attraction. The Minhe Animal Husbandry hatching project is a significant outcome of the “strengthening and supplementing the chain, chain-based investment attraction,” addressing the critical shortfall in front-end hatching for the local white feather chicken industry. This project relies on high-quality “parent stock” breeding chickens, scientific feeding, and unique integrated vertical ventilation technology, resulting in outstanding performance for its “commercial” chicks: a market rate of 99%, which is 4 percentage points higher than the industry average; a feed-to-meat ratio of 1.30, which is 0.1 lower than the industry average; and a qualified rate of H5 avian influenza antibodies at 98.7%, 5 percentage points higher than the industry average. This not only reduces costs by 0.7 yuan per chicken for farms but also increases annual revenue by nearly 100 million yuan. Additionally, supplying chicks locally to the markets in Jiangsu, Shandong, and Anhui saves over 0.1 yuan in transportation costs per chick, leading to an annual saving of 12 million yuan in chick costs in the breeding sector, significantly enhancing the industry’s resilience to risks.
Driven by quality projects, Linyi County is gradually forming an industrial cluster that covers the four core links of hatching, breeding, slaughtering, and processing, along with supporting services like inspection and quarantine, feed processing, cold chain logistics, and waste recycling. In 2024, the total output value of the entire industrial chain is over 10.38 billion yuan, creating employment for over 12,000 people. The development model of “Linyi White Feather Chickens” has also been selected as a typical case in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs’ “Three Products and One Standard” initiative, truly establishing the brand of “Chinese White Feather Chickens, with Linyi holding a prominent position.”
Today, the magnetic effect of the Linyi white feather chicken industry continues to strengthen, attracting one hatching company, six breeding companies, one slaughtering company, and two recycling companies to set up operations. In the next step, Linyi County will closely promote the 2 billion yuan deep processing industrial park for white feather meat chickens and projects like Zhengxin Chicken Steak and Taihe Foods, aiming to break the 20 billion yuan mark in the total output value of the white feather chicken industrial chain by 2027 and cultivate it as a leading industry, establishing a benchmark for high-quality development in the national white feather chicken industry.