(Yicai) Aug. 1 -- The four largest pig breeders in China, including Charoen Pokphand Group and Muyuan Foodstuff, have withdrawn a proposal made last month that aimed to put a stop to talent poaching in the industry because it violated the country’s anti-monopoly law.

Part of the proposed initiative was not well expressed and contravened the anti-monopoly law, the four companies said in a statement yesterday, adding that they had accepted the criticism made by the State Administration for Market Regulation in talks and immediately rectified the problem.

Charoen Pokphand, Muyuan, Wens Foodstuff Group, and Twins Group made the proposal on June 20, calling for firms in the industry to refrain from poaching talent from each other in order to ease competition. According to the SAMR, that violates anti-trust law, so it summoned the four breeders to a meeting yesterday, asking them to rectify the problem and identify potential compliance risks based on the law.

The four companies never worked out the details for restricting the movement of talent and will support the free flow of workers in the industry, they pointed out.

Muyuan, Wens, Twins, and Charoen Pokphand sold 61.2 million, 17.9 million, 9.3 million, and 8.5 million pigs last year, respectively, accounting for nearly 14 percent of the total sales in China.

The Chinese hog market had ample supply in the first half of this year, with low prices, even below cost at times, resulting in substantial losses for many breeders. Muyuan expects to have made a net loss of between CNY2.6 billion and CNY3.3 billion (USD362.8 million and 460.5 million) in the six months ended June 30, it said on July 14.

Editor: Martin Kadiev