(Yicai Global) Aug. 26 -- Chinese agricultural firm New Hope Liuhe has finished work on its first of three new farms in Binh Phuoc province, Vietnam, adding 300,000 pigs to its annual output in.

The farm, Vietnam's biggest for swine, will enter production in November, the Chengdu-based firm said in a statement on Aug. 24. It plans to open two more in Thanh Hoa and Binh Dinh provinces, combining to raise 450,000 hogs a year.

New Hope, which made 10 percent of its CNY6.6 billion (USD924 million) revenue abroad last year, started planning to raise pigs in Vietnam back in 2017, General Manager Liu Zhong of the firm's overseas department told Yicai Global.

Pig breeding has become more common in Vietnam over the past two years, Liu said, adding that the nation's government is now paying more attention to environmental protection and that this opened up opportunities for industry consolidation. African swine fever also cost Vietnam dearly in 2018, causing many smaller farmers to withdraw from the market, he said.

ASF also impacted pork supplies in China and many companies are looking to import meat, which is cheaper overseas. Pigfeed costs about CNY500 (USD70) a ton less in Vietnam than China, which makes the cost of raising pigs about CNY2 (28 US cents) lower per kilogram.

New Hope's production capacity in Vietnam is still fairly low though, and it will mostly use the farms to sell locally, Liu added, saying China has strict regulations on pork imports and is not currently accepting pork from Vietnam. There may be the possibility of sending chilled meats to China in the future, he said.

Editor: James Boynton