Early Life
Qin Yinglin was born in 1965 in Hexi Village, Henan, China. He grew up in poverty. His father's attempt at pig farming influenced Qin's career choice. He was accepted to Henan Agricultural University in 1985.
Rise to Success
After graduating in 1989 with a degree in animal husbandry, Qin worked at Nanyang Food Company. In 1992, Qin quit his job and moved back to his hometown with his wife, Qian Ying, to start a pork business. They started with 22 pigs and the operation grew rapidly, reaching 2,000 pigs by 1994 and 10,000 by 1997. In 2000, Qin founded Muyuan Farming (later Muyuan Foodstuff).
Key Business Strategies
Qin's success is attributed to his innovative approach to large-scale pig farming, emphasizing biosecurity and vertical integration. Muyuan Foodstuff went public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2014. The company's stock price surged during the African swine fever outbreak in 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Muyuan's success during the swine fever crisis was attributed to owning more facilities, enabling better disease control. Qin owns 883 million shares of Muyuan stock, 40.06% of the company.
Philanthropy
Qin donated stock worth RMB 100 million to the Westlake Education Foundation in February 2019 and made another donation in April 2020, of stock worth RMB 800 million to the Westlake Education Foundation.
