China's largest pork and poultry producer, Wen's Foodstuff Group, said on Wednesday April 24 that low pork and poultry prices in the first three months of this year brought it at a loss of 460.5 million yuan or $ 68.58 million.

In the first quarter of last year, Wen's Foodstuff Group produced 22 million pigs and made a profit of 1.4 billion yuan.

In the first quarter of this year, the Wen's Foodstuff Group sold 5.96 million pigs, which is almost 20 percent more than a year earlier, but low prices in the first two months of the year led to losses in pig production, despite a slight increase in prices in March.

Losses of the company also contributed to the increase in costs of investing in new facilities and financing measures to prevent African swine fever.

As for poultry, the company's sales of its yellow feather broiler chickens jumped 20 percent in the first quarter to 184 million birds. However, this did not bring profit, because but prices, due to growing supplies to the market, fell by 14.78 percent compared to the first quarter.

However, the Wen's Foodstuff Group said it will adhere to its strategy for producing more pigs and chickens, and plans to increase broiler production by at least 10 percent this year.