Beijing Review

Fat Profits

Inside China’s largest foie gras- producing county By Ji Jing

Linqu County in Weifang of Shandong Province has recently risen to fame as China’s largest producer of foie gras, the liver of specially fattened geese and ducks, which is a French delicacy. Last year, the county raised more than 5 million Landes geese, a breed developed in France specifical­ly for their large, fatty livers; and produced more than 5,000 tons of foie gras for the domestic and internatio­nal markets, accounting for more than 70 percent of domestic goose liver production.

A complete industrial chain

Linqu’s path to becoming China’s largest producer of foie gras began in 1988, when Shandong Zunrun Sanrougey Food Co. Ltd. imported 10,000 Landes geese from France, initiating the county’s foie gras industry.

“Linqu and Landes are on the same latitude and their environmen­tal conditions, including humidity, temperatur­e and soil, are also similar, providing ideal conditions for raising the Landes geese.” Gao Shifeng, Chairman of the company, told news portal Ql1d.com.

In 1998, the company introduced a set of advanced technologi­es, management models, and slaughter production lines from France; and establishe­d an epidemic prevention system. It also engaged a French livestock expert to provide guidance on the production process from egg to table, including hatching, feeding and slaughteri­ng of Landes geese, as well as liver harvesting, preservati­on, and transporta­tion.

The company’s foie gras is sold both within the domestic market, i ncluding t o high-end hotels, and Western and Japanese restaurant­s in first-tier cities, and to the overseas market, including to Japan and the European Union.

Lower labor and feed costs have given the county’s foie gras an edge over imported products. According to e-commerce platform Taobao, imported goose liver sells for an average of 0.87 yuan ($0.12) per gram, while domestic goose liver is priced at an average of 0.52 yuan ($0.07) per gram.

Landes geese lay eggs only twice a year, and market demand for Linqu’s foie gras quickly began to outpace supply. In 2014, Gao Yuanliang, General Manager of the abovementi­oned goose liver company, began to think about how to increase production capacity.

“The quantity of foie gras a goose can produce is fixed, and if you want to increase foie gras production, you need to increase the number of geese,” he told Ql1d.com. In 2015, the company built an egg base with the help of Shandong Agricultur­al University, increasing egg production from two seasons to four seasons a year. At present, the base has 30,000 geese, producing nd 900,000 eggs a year. Goslings from the base are supplied to local farmers in Linqu.

Gao Shangkun, a 68-year-old local farmer, has over 40 years of experience in the geese business. He raises 10,000 Landes geese annually, which brings him an income of over 300,000 yuan ($41,247) a year. He selects Landes goslings from local goose factories and raises them for around 80 days. Foie gras producers will then purchase the geese from farmers to fatten for an additional 25-30 days.

Currently, Linqu has over 100 goose liver producers and over 6,000 practition­ers in the goose liver industry.

Industrial upgrading

In 2018, the foie gras market was approachin­g saturation, with prices and profit margins decreasing. Goose liver enterprise­s in Linqu sought to upgrade their products to increase profits. During this time, Shandong Chunguan Food Co. Ltd. developed a packaged, precooked foie gras with red wine and blueberry product.

“In Western restaurant­s, foie gras is often cooked with red wine. We can make such a dish in our workshop,” Ma Lijun, General

“If we can succeed in developing a new breed, we will be self-sufficient in the entire foie gras industrial chain.” —Ma Lijun, General Manager of Shandong Chunguan Food Co. Ltd.

Manager of the company, told Ql1d.com. “Whether to cook liver first or marinate it first, how to remove the gamey smell, how to enrich the taste, and how to achieve mass production were the questions that we had to solve,” Ma said.

After the product came out, the company partnered with Western restaurant­s to invite diners to taste their product for free and made multiple rounds of adjustment­s based on their feedback.

The final product was launched in the latter half of 2018. “At that time, the best raw foie gras sold for only 160 yuan ($22) per kg but our foie gras with red wine and blueberry could sell for as much as 480 yuan ($66) per kg,” Ma said.

Thanks to this product, the company’s revenue reached 80 million yuan ($11 million) in 2019, doubling that of the previous year.

Starting from this popular product, foie gras enterprise­s in Linqu have developed other premade foie gras dishes including foie gras ice cream and foie gras dumplings. Sales channels of foie gras products have also expanded from high-end restaurant­s to supermarke­ts and online stores.

Gao Yuanliang’s company has collaborat­ed with Jiangnan University in Wuxi of Jiangsu Province to develop products such as goose liver paste. At present, his company has developed three types of this paste: One is used as an ingredient for hotpot restaurant­s, one is pan fried at Western restaurant­s and the third one is used for making sushi at Japanese restaurant­s.

At present, the geese that supply the eggs for Linqu’s foie gras production are all imported from France and need to be replaced regularly to prevent disease. The foie gras enterprise­s in the county are now working to develop their own breeds of egg-supplying geese in collaborat­ion with research institutes and universiti­es.

Ma’s company has partnered with the Poultry Institute of the Shandong Academy of Agricultur­al Sciences to develop a new breed. “If we can succeed in developing a new breed, we will be self-sufficient in the entire foie gras industrial chain,” Ma said.