We've opened one of the largest and most modern sow farms in Europe on 9 June 2023 in Felsőbabád
On 9 June 2023, we celebrated another exciting milestone at the Hunland Group. We inaugurated our two-storey, state-of-the-art sow farm, accomodating 4200 sows, fully compliant with European standards and legislation. Here we can take part in increasing the Hungarian piglet population, which has been in decline, by 120,000 piglets per year.
Janssen Jos, owner of the Hunland Group, dared to dream big again 3 years ago! In 2021, looking at the number of pigs in Western Europe and Hungary and the trends in pig breeding, he saw that Hunland could play a prominent role in pig production in Hungary. Thus, the idea was born that Hunland’s next milestone should be to build and open its own sow farm. ‘We believe very strongly in pig production in this region. In Western Europe, the pig population is very much reduced, so there will be no surplus piglets for export. It is much better to produce piglets at home than to import them at expensive freight costs. And on top of that, live animal transport rules are getting stricter.’ – he said in his opening speech.
The owner’s vision was guided by simplicity and focus, and we can see the success of this now, as the project was ideated, designed, implemented and operational in just 3 years.
‘Last year we launched our pig integration activity with great anticipation and excitement, which now has 50 000 places. The sow farm, where we will produce 120,000 piglets per year, represents another major milestone in Hunland’s pig production and trading.‘ said Tibor Hipszki, our company’s Chief Operating, Finance and Strategy Officer.
The construction of the sow farm at Felsőbabád cost HUF 7.7 billion, of which the Hungarian state through the Ministry of Agriculture financed HUF 2 billion, for which we are extremely grateful! The investment was financed by K&H bank, who also stood by us as a partner in the process.
The sow farm is special in many ways. The two-storey facility is unique in Hungary, using modern technologies that comply with the highest European Union regulations, accomodating 4,200 pigs and providing optimal conditions for the sows, the piglets and the breeding process. During the design of the farm, innovative steps were taken to implement a sustainable system. We’ve introduced a system of 36 heat pumps, with which we can provide fully self-sufficient winter heating of the pigs using animal heat without gas or fossil fuel. The contractor, Genugten Agri, did a perfect job in every respect during the construction period of only 1 year, which allowed the project to be completed on time.
Thanks to the new investment, the Hunland family is expanding with new colleagues. ‘In addition to creating jobs, new human relationships are being created and with the arrival of new expert colleagues we are developing our knowledge, because knowledge-based development is very important to us,’ said Tibor Hipszki.
Hunland’s success story started in Hungary more than thirty years ago. Now our success story continues with the sow farm, to make our production even more stable, even more profitable, and to support the Hungarian pig sector with good ‘Hunland piglets’. We want to continue to be one of the export engines of the Hungarian agriculture.
