^{Xia Weidong [fifth from right] and Chen Degui, [fourth from right] pictured with Cobb co-presidents Joel Sappenfield [fourth from left] and Jerry Moye [fifth from left]}

The day began with meeting the Suizhou City government officials, secretary general Xia Weidong and chief of agriculture Chen Degui, at the Phoenix Hotel where Moye thanked them for the continuous support of the Cobb Tong Xing project.

“We feel really lucky to have picked Suizhou for the location of our grandparent complex,” he said. “Logistically it is located in an area of central China which is very suited to poultry production, isolated from major poultry farms.”

The group then drove to the hatchery office to meet the China Tong Xing management team. During the meeting Jerry Moye thanked the team at for their contributions and hard work and told them: “We are the first breeding company to set up facilities on the ground to serve the Chinese market directly, which allows us to really understand this market better than anybody else. We are dedicated to achieve better efficiency and flock health for the whole broiler industry in this market. Setting up our own operation in China has always been a dream of mine”.

Joel Sappenfield stated: “It’s very inspiring to visit this new complex of Cobb. It represents the cutting-edge management techniques that Cobb has learned across the globe. We are confident we can compete with any other poultry operation in China and beyond.”

Pelayo Casanovas, general manager of the Cobb Asia-Pacific region, added: “The Chinese market has seen great volatility in the last few years. We believe our ‘Consistent and Transparent Pricing Policy’ will meet integrators’ expectations for foreseeable costs, high quality product and consistent supply.”

The Cobb China Operation is now 85% staffed, employing 152 team members, and has placed five grandparent flocks.

The visitors toured the hatchery, which will start setting eggs this month, and then went to North Star Farm where the first Cobb500 grandparent placement took place in the five production units last December.