Institute pushes high-end Taiwanese beef, pork with new livestock varieties

Taipei, Nov. 8 (CNA) The Taiwan Livestock Research Institute under the Ministry of Agriculture said Friday that it had helped breed new varieties of cattle and pigs for use in high-end Taiwanese beef and pork products.

At a news conference, the institute said it spent many years working with Taiwan's GGP Biotechnology to breed "Yuanxing" cattle, and Pin-Pu Farm Corp. to raise "Pinpu" black pigs to help boost the quality of Taiwan's pork and beef brands while strengthening the nation's competitiveness in the meat industry.

The institute's director, Huang Chen-fang (黃振芳), said that while breeding was a difficult undertaking, its success could elevate Taiwan's farming and ranching industry.

When it comes to Taiwanese beef, Huang said Taiwan will have Yuanxing beef cattle as a national product on top of the already established yellow beef cattle and water buffalos.

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GGP chairperson Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英) said at the press event that the cattle bred with the help of the institute were descendants of a herd of 19 animals found roaming Yangmingshan National Park's Qingtiangang Grassland in 2016, which were former adopted by then President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝).

According to the institute, the animals in the original herd were very closely related to the Tajima black beef cattle breed found on Japan's Ishigaki Island, home of the renowned Ishigaki Wagyu beef.

After transporting the 19 original cattle to a ranch in Hualien County, the institute spent seven years and NT$300 million (US$9.3 million) to increase the herd to over 200 animals.

Liu said that the current plan is to increase the herd to 1,000 cattle in the next three years with the ultimate goal of getting 10,000 animals to market.

According to GGP General Manager Chung Ti-ming (鍾迪名), Yuanxing beef tastes sweet.

Chung said the beef brand has already drawn the interest of companies from Japan and Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Lee Jung-chune (李榮春), the general manager of Pin-Pu Farm Corp., said the company had spent years working with the Taiwan Livestock Research Institute and other experts such as Wang Pei-hwa (王佩華), a professor with National Taiwan University's Department of Animal Science and Technology, to breed the farm's unique Pinpu black pig variety.

The meat from the pigs are currently labeled as the "Odiva" pork brand.

The farm began purchasing various black pig strains from across Taiwan in 2008 to breed the new variety, Lee said.

Compared with pork from most white and Iberian pigs on the market, the Odiva pork from Pinpu black pigs tastes four times sweeter and has 1.5 times the collagen content, Lee added.

Lee said he hopes to work with more local farmers to grow the breed into an industry with an annual output capability of 50,000 pigs to make Odiva pork products, which are already being sold.