The richest pig farmer in Yunfu has encountered a "Waterloo" in wealth.

On the evening of October 21st, Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. disclosed its third - quarter report. The financial report shows that in the third quarter, the company achieved an operating income of 25.937 billion yuan, a year - on - year decrease of 9.76%; the net profit attributable to the parent company was 1.781 billion yuan, a year - on - year plunge of 65.02%, indicating obvious pressure on its performance.

Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. stated that the decline in the net profit attributable to the parent company was due to the decrease in the prices of its main products and the year - on - year reduction in the operating profit of the breeding industry.

The sales briefing shows that, especially the pig business, had a significant impact on the company's overall profitability. In September, the average sales price of live pigs dropped to 13.18 yuan per kilogram, a more than 30% decline compared with the same period last year.

According to the information disclosed in the 2024 annual report, the actual controller of Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. is the Wen Pengcheng family. In this year's "New Fortune Magazine 500 Wealth Creation List", the Wen Pengcheng family once again ranked first among the richest people in Yunfu, Guangdong (based on the company's location) with a fortune of 14.97 billion yuan. However, compared with the peak of 29.38 billion yuan in 2020, their wealth has shrunk by 14.4 billion yuan.

Facing the current complex and volatile market environment and cyclical challenges in the industry, Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd., hailed as the "Huawei in the agricultural industry" by the outside world, is actively promoting digital transformation.

In 2025, the AI veterinarian jointly developed by Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. and Huawei Cloud officially "took up the post", becoming the first "practicing - level" AI veterinarian in China. This innovative application not only improves the diagnosis and treatment efficiency but also reduces the breeding cost, providing new ideas for the modern transformation of traditional agriculture and animal husbandry.

The performance in the third - quarter report is under pressure, and the increase in the volume of pork cannot offset the price decline

The third - quarter report of Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. in 2025 shows that the company achieved a single - quarter operating income of 25.937 billion yuan, a 9.76% decrease compared with 28.743 billion yuan in the same period last year; the net profit attributable to the parent company was 1.781 billion yuan, a year - on - year decrease of 65.02%; the non - recurring profit and loss net profit was 1.633 billion yuan, a year - on - year decline of 68.07%.

If the statistical scope is extended to the first three quarters, Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. achieved a net profit attributable to the parent company of 5.256 billion yuan, a year - on - year decrease of 18.29%; the non - recurring profit and loss net profit was 4.889 billion yuan, a year - on - year decrease of 24.6%; the net cash flow from operating activities was 8.199 billion yuan, a year - on - year decrease of 34.79%.

In this regard, Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. explained that the decline in the net profit attributable to the parent company was mainly due to the decrease in the prices of its main products and the year - on - year reduction in the operating profit of the breeding industry.

Although the sales volume of the main products increased and the sales revenue increased to some extent, the sales price decreased significantly year - on - year. The decline in price was greater than the decline in breeding cost, and the product gross profit margin decreased, resulting in a decrease in net cash flow.

According to the data from Flush iFinD, in the first three quarters of 2025, the company's gross profit margin was 12.82%, a year - on - year decrease of 3.51 percentage points; the net profit margin was 7.15%, a decrease of 1.65 percentage points compared with the same period last year.

The "increase in volume and decrease in price" of the pig business has become the core factor dragging down Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd.'s performance in the third quarter.

The sales data disclosed by Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. shows that in the third quarter, the company sold 9.7358 million pigs, a significant increase compared with 7.1878 million in the same period last year. However, the continuous decline in the sales price seriously eroded the profit margin.

Among them, the average sales price of live pigs in September dropped to the lowest point of the year, 13.18 yuan per kilogram, a plunge of 30.81% compared with 19.05 yuan per kilogram in the same period last year.

The monitoring data of the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on 500 county - level marketplaces and collection points across the country shows that in the first week of October (the collection date was October 9th), the average price of piglets across the country was 27.23 yuan per kilogram, a 3.6% decrease compared with the previous week and a year - on - year decline of 26.6%. The prices of piglets in all 29 monitored provinces showed a downward trend.

At the same time, the average price of live pigs across the country was 12.9 yuan per kilogram, a 2.8% decrease compared with the previous week and a 29.5% year - on - year decline. The prices of live pigs in all 30 monitored provinces also declined across the board.

According to the monitoring data from Zhuochuang Information, as of October 13th, the average price of lean - type live pigs across the country in 2025 was 14.39 yuan per kilogram, a 14.41% decrease from the previous period. Among them, the highest price appeared on January 6th, reaching 16.36 yuan per kilogram; the lowest price appeared on October 13th, dropping to 10.72 yuan per kilogram, the lowest level since October 2021.

In sharp contrast to the sluggish pig market, the company's broiler chicken breeding business performed relatively well. The sales data shows that in the third quarter, the volume and price of the company's broiler chicken business increased simultaneously, with a cumulative sales volume of 350 million broiler chickens.

At the one - on - one telephone conference communication event (online) on September 25th, Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. stated that "the prices in the chicken - breeding industry were sluggish in the first half of the year, but the second half of the year is the traditional consumption peak season. Since August, the prices of the broiler chicken business have recovered rapidly. Especially since September, the company's broiler chicken sales price has increased to 6.6 yuan per catty, and the chicken - breeding business has started to return to profitability."

Despite the pressure on profitability, Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. still maintained a positive shareholder return policy. According to the "Announcement on the Profit Distribution Plan for the First Three Quarters of 2025" issued by the company, as of September 30th, 2025, the cumulative distributable profit within the scope of the company's consolidated statements was 24.024 billion yuan, and the cumulative distributable profit of the parent company was 29.501 billion yuan (the above data are unaudited).

In order to better reward shareholders, on the premise of considering the company's future business development and the capital needs of production and operation, Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. plans to distribute a cash dividend of 3 yuan (tax included) for every 10 shares to all shareholders. Based on the total share capital as of September 30th, 2025, the total cash distribution will be 1.994 billion yuan (tax included).

In addition, the company's asset - liability structure has been continuously optimized. As of the end of the third quarter, the company's asset - liability ratio was 49.41%, showing a continuous decline for 6 quarters, and this is also the first time since the second quarter of 2021 that this indicator has dropped below 50%.

The billionaire from the chicken farm, whose wealth has been "halved" compared with the peak

When it comes to Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd., it is impossible to bypass its soul figure - Wen Pengcheng. This entrepreneur from Xinxing County, Guangdong, has spent decades cultivating a local chicken farm into a national agricultural and animal husbandry giant.

Public information shows that Wen Pengcheng was born in October 1962. In 1983, in his early 20s, Wen Pengcheng and his father Wen Beiying led six other local farmers to raise a total of 8,000 yuan in equity and jointly established a small farm - Lezhu Livestock Joint - venture Company. The next year, the company was renamed Lezhu Chicken Farm, which is the predecessor of Wens.

In 1986, an accidental help unexpectedly gave rise to the germination of the Wens model. At that time, a local farmer who failed in the brick - kiln business hoped to buy some chicken seedlings on credit from Wen Pengcheng's father, Wen Beiying, for self - breeding.

Considering that the farmer had a weak technical foundation and a relatively high risk of chicken - breeding, Wen Beiying not only provided chicken seedlings but also provided supporting feed, drugs, and technical support, and even assisted in selling the broiler chickens.

Unexpectedly, the farmer's business situation gradually improved, attracting more surrounding farmers to come and buy chicken seedlings on credit.

Since the second half of 1987, Lezhu Chicken Farm began to transform from an internal self - breeding, self - rearing, and self - selling chicken - breeding system to a socialized service system for chicken - breeding. By the end of that year, Lezhu Chicken Farm already had 36 cooperative chicken - breeding households.

In 1989, when the broiler chicken market was in a slump, Lezhu Chicken Farm helped farmers sell broiler chickens by guaranteeing the purchase price, and the "combination of the farm and farmers, purchasing and selling on behalf of others" model further developed into the "company + farmers" model. This innovative model of forming an interest community between the company and farmers has become one of the most distinctive features of Wens.

With this model, the operating efficiency of the chicken farm was significantly improved. The company's total output value increased to 1 million yuan in 1987 and soared to 2.35 million yuan in 1988.

In the following years, Wen Pengcheng and his father worked together to lead the company forward. In 1994, Wen Pengcheng took full charge of the group's work. This young leader lived up to expectations and managed Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. successfully.

In 1997, during a research trip, Wen Pengcheng keenly discovered that pig - breeding had more profit potential than chicken - breeding, and the pork market was broader than the chicken market. So, he resolutely decided to enter the pig - breeding industry, promoting Wens to shift from "specializing in chicken - breeding" to "simultaneously breeding chickens and pigs".

However, Wens, which started from chicken - breeding, has faced the impact of epidemics many times on its development path. Each crisis has made the concept of the interest community of the "company + farmers" more firm.

In 2004, when the H5N1 avian influenza broke out, chicken - breeding farmers suffered heavy losses. Facing such a difficult situation, Wens resolutely took out 3.6 billion yuan from the 4.4 billion yuan earned from pig - breeding to compensate the chicken - breeding farmers.

In 2013, the avian influenza hit again. Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. suffered a daily loss of nearly 30 million yuan, the market shrank by 85%, and the East China market was completely paralyzed, with a cumulative loss of more than 3 billion yuan. Even so, Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. still solemnly promised the cooperative chicken - breeding farmers to ensure a profit of at least one yuan per chicken.

In November 2015, led by Wen Pengcheng, Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. successfully listed on the Growth Enterprise Market of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, marking another milestone in the company's development history.

This listing not only enabled Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. to enter the capital market but also created a wealth - creation myth. According to media reports, when it was listed in 2015, the wealth of more than 6,800 employees of Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. multiplied. Among them, 48 people had a fortune of over 100 million yuan, and at the same time, thousands of people became millionaires.

The success of the Wen family is not only reflected in the accumulation of personal wealth. More importantly, the "company + farmers" model they created provides a replicable sample for the development of China's agriculture and animal husbandry. This model integrates the company's technological, financial, and market advantages with the farmers' labor and land resources, achieving mutual benefit and win - win results and promoting the process of agricultural industrialization.

Tianyancha shows that currently, Wen Pengcheng serves as a director of Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd., and his younger brother Wen Zhifen serves as the chairman of the company.

However, in recent years, affected by multiple factors such as industry cycles and market environment, the wealth scale of the Wen Pengcheng family has shrunk significantly compared with the peak period.

In this year's "New Fortune Magazine 500 Wealth Creation List", the Wen Pengcheng family ranked 228th with a fortune of 14.97 billion yuan, but their wealth is almost "halved" compared with the peak of 29.38 billion yuan in 2020.

The "Huawei in the agricultural industry" joins hands with Huawei to promote digital transformation

In traditional perception, the livestock and poultry breeding industry is often affected by cycles, and problems such as price fluctuations, epidemic risks, and cost pressures also bring many challenges to practitioners. However, the practice of Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. has opened up a new path for the industry. It is actively promoting digital transformation and driving high - quality development through technological innovation.

According to the introduction of Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd., the company started exploring informatization in 1990; in 1993, it cooperated with South China Agricultural University to establish a local area network, realizing networked management within the enterprise; in 2005, it introduced the Kingdee EAS centralized information system, realizing centralized management of production management, finance, marketing, and other businesses.

It is worth mentioning that Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. was once hailed as the "Huawei in the agricultural industry" by the outside world. Coincidentally, in 2021, Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. also established in - depth cooperation with Huawei, fully launching digital transformation and building an all - around digital and intelligent system.

Inspired by Huawei's successful practice in digital transformation, based on its own development strategy and business needs, Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. has gradually established a development path centered on digitalization, comprehensively promoting digital upgrading in five major fields: livestock and poultry breeding, disease prevention and control, feed nutrition, environmental technology, and digital technology.

At the same time, Wens also jointly built an intelligent Internet of Things system covering the breeding units with Huawei Cloud. The distributed architecture of Huawei Cloud, through the three - dimensional layout of "cloud - edge collaboration", accurately realizes the compliant circulation and unified management and control of cross - regional data, enabling Wens' core business to be fully migrated to the cloud.

In 2025, the AI veterinarian jointly developed by Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. and Huawei Cloud officially "took up the post", becoming the first "practicing - level" AI veterinarian in China. This innovative application has completely changed the traditional diagnosis and treatment model of breeding. Through AI technology, it realizes the accurate diagnosis of diseases and the intelligent recommendation of treatment plans.

It is understood that the AI veterinarian passed the real - question test of the 2024 practicing veterinarian qualification exam with an ultra - high score of 392 points, exceeding the highest score of humans in recent years. This system integrates the core data such as drugs, diagnosis and treatment formulas, and prescriptions accumulated by Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. over 30 years, and can provide fast and accurate diagnosis and treatment services for farmers.

A chicken - breeding farmer said: "In the past, when the chicken flock got sick, we had to wait for the chicken flock administrator to come. If the mountain road was far, it would take half a day; now, just take a picture and describe the symptoms, and we can receive the treatment plan in a short time. It's much more worry - free."

In