Origin Agritech Ltd., an agriculture technology company, announced today that the company has received an order for its hybrid corn worth RMB240 million, or roughly $35 million, from Muyuan Foods.

Muyuan Foods is a publicly traded company on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, with a $50 billion market capitalization, it is China’s largest hog farming company. Muyuan purchases over 50 million metric tons of corn feedstock annually. The initial order is part of a 100 million metric ton purchase agreement signed for next 5 years.

The companies have agreed in principle to collaborate to contract grow Origin’s Nutritionally Enhanced Corn (NEC) beginning in the 2023 growing season. At present, Muyuan is contract growing about 3 million mu, or roughly 494,000 acres of farmland to plant hybrid corn and other feed crops in China.

“Origin’s NEC corn is revolutionary, as it takes less resources to feed livestock, thus reducing the carbon footprint,” said Fazhan Liu, General Manager of Muyuan Grain Trade. “Additionally, partnering with Origin to transition a significant portion of our corn feedstock to NEC will help us to keep our costs under control and thus allow us to continue selling top quality pork products at affordable prices.”

“I have long admired Muyuan Foods as one of the great Chinese companies, so I am particularly proud to begin this journey with them,” said Dr. Gengchen Han, Origin Agritech’s Chairman. “I am confident that the companies will have a long and prosperous business relationship together.”