Origin Agritech Limited announced that the company has commenced a joint venture with Sichuan Cloudland Agricultural Science and Technology, to expand production of NEC corn into Sichuan Province, China. An opportune region for animal feed production, Sichuan Province has the production of pork and is home to 4 of the 10 hog farming companies in China. Nevertheless, Sichuan is only ranked 8th in corn production which has resulted in a 10-million-ton per annum deficit in corn for feedstock that must be sourced from other provinces.

Sichuan has frequently had the corn prices in the country. The regional government has expressed great interest in supporting the growth of Origin Agritech's NEC corn due to its energy density and resource efficiency allowing more hogs to be fed per unit of corn.