Introduction:
6-story buildings and annual sales of 210 million pigs: pig farming in high-rise buildings was once an industry benchmark under land constraints. But a new policy in 2026 11 placed buildings above 7 floors on the negative list for agricultural land. From rapid expansion to tighter restrictions, what is holding back ultra-high-rise pig farms?
Pig farming in high-rise buildings is a new livestock-farming model that emerged in China’s pig industry under the combined pressures of land-resource constraints, large-scale expansion, and improved biosecurity. After the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs explicitly allowed livestock-farming facilities to be built in multi-story buildings in 2019, the model entered a period of rapid expansion. Muyuan’s Neixiang Meat Industry Complex, with 21 buildings of 6 stories, annual sales of 210 million pigs, and land-use efficiency 4.3-5 times that of flat farming, became an industry benchmark. Companies including Wens, Shennong, New Hope, Luoshan, Tianzhao, and Lihua have also followed suit, with investment in individual projects ranging from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of yuan.
However, rapid expansion has also brought a series of problems: ventilation, manure removal, waterproofing, and the risk of cross-contamination affecting biosecurity have become prominent in high-density pig farms with more than 7 floors, while the centralized discharge of manure and wastewater is putting pressure on the surrounding land’s capacity to absorb it. On 2 11 2026, the Ministry of Natural Resources, together with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, jointly issued the Notice on Improving the Management of Land for Facility Agriculture. The document included “new pig farms in buildings with more than 7 floors” on the negative list for land for facility agriculture. This marks a tightening of policy: pig farms in ultra-high-rise buildings are no longer registered as agricultural land.
Source: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs website
Relevant policies have followed an evolution of “initially allowing, then regulating, and later tightening.”
2019: Initially allowed. On 17 12 2019, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued the Notice on Issues Concerning the Management of Land for Facility Agriculture (Ziranzigu〔2019〕4), clarifying that “multi-story buildings may be constructed for livestock breeding facilities.” Land for pig farming was to be managed as land for facility agriculture, without the need to obtain approval for construction land. The upper limit of 15 mu for land for ancillary facilities for pig farming was also removed, subject to compliance with building safety and animal disease prevention requirements.
2021: Farmland-use constraints tighten. In 2021 year, 11 month, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and the National Forestry and Grassland Administration issued the Notice on Issues Concerning Strict Control of Farmland Use. The notice strictly prohibits the new occupation of permanent basic farmland to build livestock and poultry farming facilities, strictly controls the use of general farmland for new farming facilities, and requires approval and implementation of a balance between farmland occupation and replenishment where such use is necessary.
2023: Encouragement at the planning level. The National Modern Facility Agriculture Development Plan (2023—2030), issued by four ministries and commissions including the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, proposes to “promote high-rise pig farming in buildings according to local conditions.” Its targets are to have 60 large-scale, multi-story pig farms in operation by 2025 and 150 by 2030.
2026: Restrictions on ultra-high-rise facilities. In 2026 year, 11 month, the Ministry of Natural Resources and two other departments jointly issued the Notice on Improving the Management of Facilities for Agricultural Use of Land. It includes “new pig farms in buildings with 7 or more floors” alongside oversized office buildings and other facilities on a negative list of uses that cannot be filed as facilities for agricultural land use. It also stipulates that land for ancillary livestock and poultry farming facilities must be limited to no more than 7% of the total land area, up to a maximum of 30 mu; filing documents must specify the land area, height, and number of floors. This means that newly built pig farms in buildings with 7 or more floors require separate approval as construction land, substantially increasing land-supply costs and compliance thresholds. The ultra-high-rise model has largely disappeared from new supply.
Environmental constraints are also tightening. The Regulations on the Prevention and Control of Pollution from Large-Scale Livestock and Poultry Farming and local policies on the resource utilization of livestock and poultry manure require the full collection and compliant treatment of manure and wastewater. Disposal standards have shifted from the former rule of thumb of “3 fattening pigs per 1 mu of supporting cropland” to precise calculations based on the nitrogen and phosphorus absorption capacity of crops on land used for disposal, with environmental requirements continuing to rise.
Current status of pig farming in multi-story buildings
Following the African swine fever outbreak in 2018, the biosecurity advantages of multi-story pig farms—being enclosed and easy to isolate—became more evident. This, combined with the relaxation of land-use policies at the end of 2019, ushered the industry into a construction boom: 95% of multi-story pig farms were newly built and put into operation after 2020, and around seven tenths were integrated farrow-to-finish facilities. 80% were concentrated in buildings with 6~8 floors. Geographically, the pattern is “more in the south, fewer in the north,” with the greatest concentration in provinces where land is scarce or mountainous terrain is prevalent, such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, and Zhejiang.
Based on an incomplete tally of company announcements, annual reports, investor relations records, and media reports from recent years, Aige Agriculture presents the multi-story pig farming operations of major large-scale domestic pig farming companies in the table below.
Multi-story pig farming projects invested in by large-scale pig farming companies
Information source: public announcement
Multi-story pig farming projects that large enterprises are investing in and building
2025-2026年, although the industry was at the bottom of the pig cycle and most farming enterprises were operating at a loss, investment in multi-story pig farming projects did not stop. Leading enterprises viewed multi-story pig farming as a long-term strategy to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and capture market share.
According to incomplete statistics from AskCI Agriculture, the multi-story pig farming projects that major domestic pig farming enterprises are investing in, building, or resuming work on are listed in the table below.
Building-based pig farming projects being invested in and built by large-scale pig farming enterprises
Information source: public announcements
Advantages and disadvantages of building-based pig farming
( 1 ) Main advantages
First, improved land-use efficiency. In areas where arable land resources are scarce, building-based pig farming is a viable way to expand production capacity. Research shows that vertical farming uses only about 0.18 square meters of land per pig, saving about 91% compared with traditional flat-floor farming. The measured land-use rate at the Muyuan Neixiang project increased by 4.3-5 times, while the Yangxiang model uses less than 1/10 of the land required by a single-story facility.
Second, labor efficiency and costs. With a high degree of automation and intelligentization, 1 stockperson can manage 4,800 pigs during the finishing stage at Muyuan’s Neixiang site. Jinjing Smart Agriculture’s finishing-stage labor efficiency is 3,400-3,500 pigs per person. Labor input at multi-story pig farms is reduced by approximately 1/3 compared with flat-layout farms, while turnover costs are only 1/5-1/10 of those at flat-layout farms.
Third, biosecurity and quality. Multi-story enclosed pig houses, combined with four-stage air filtration, all-in/all-out production, and dedicated pig-transport elevators, significantly reduce the risk of entry by outside personnel, vehicles, wild birds, and rodents and insects compared with open, flat-layout farms, helping to prevent the introduction of external diseases such as African swine fever. Jinjing Smart Agriculture’s projects in Gaozhou, Xuwen, and Hezhou have all received national-level recognition as “African Swine Fever-Free Zones.”
(2) Main drawbacks
First, pressure on surrounding land to absorb manure and wastewater. Unlike traditional flat-layout farms, where manure and wastewater are dispersed across a large site, multi-story pig farms concentrate pig densities several times to dozens of times higher on the same plot of land, resulting in a highly concentrated volume of manure and wastewater. A single pig farm in a building more than twenty stories tall can generate up to tens of thousands of tons of manure and wastewater in one day, creating substantial environmental treatment pressures. Of greater concern, the disconnect between crop farming and livestock raising is pronounced in northern regions. Wastewater from most livestock farms is not truly rendered harmless, and much of the liquid manure returned to fields is still untreated wastewater that has not been adequately fermented. Applying it directly to fields can instead be toxic to the soil and is highly likely to cause groundwater pollution, soil salinization, and odor nuisances, making it a frequent cause of complaints from nearby residents and environmental enforcement action.
Second, the risk of cross-infection from diseases due to high stocking density. Although external biosecurity has improved, once a pathogen enters a building, air recirculation between floors and cross-contamination via material elevators may infect the entire herd in the building, resulting in losses far greater than those in flat-floor housing.
Third, high equipment operating and maintenance costs and high failure rates. Some pig farms report that after operating at full capacity, manure scrapers need repairs almost every month, and the wire ropes suffer severe wear. Each repair increases biosecurity risks. At some pig farms, inadequate waterproofing has led to seepage into the manure channels in less than two years, causing contamination between floors.
Future Trends in Multi-Story Pig Farming
First, total numbers will continue to grow, while the structure shifts toward low- and mid-rise buildings. In line with the national target of completing 150 large-scale, multi-story intensive pig farms by 2030, multi-story pig farming remains a policy-supported direction. However, under the new regulations in 2026, new projects will mainly be buildings with fewer than 7 floors, marking the end of ultra-high-rise buildings.
Second, develop integrated feed-production, breeding, slaughtering, and commercial complexes. Muyuan Neixiang, Zhongxin Kaiwei, and Yangxiang all include feed, slaughtering, and organic fertilizer divisions. Using the entire value chain to spread the high fixed costs of building-based pig farming, the closed-loop model of integrated feed-production, breeding, slaughtering, and commercial complexes will become mainstream.
Third, smart technology is becoming a core competitive advantage. Smart environmental control, inspection robots, and precision feeding have already increased fattening labor efficiency severalfold. Technological iteration will continue to widen cost differences between companies.
Fourth, site selection logic is shifting to “prioritize land for manure utilization.” Under the dual constraints of farmland-use controls and precise nitrogen and phosphorus calculations, whether sufficient farmland is available for manure utilization will replace land quotas as the primary constraint on the expansion of building-based pig farms; the regional circular model of “raising pigs in buildings, applying manure to farmland, and integrating crop and livestock farming” is the fundamental way to ease pressure on surrounding land.