W u Jianshu is a Chinese billionaire and a key member of the family that controls the Wens Foodstuffs Group, one of China's largest producers of poultry and pigs. She is the widow of one of the company's eight co-founders. The company was established in 1983 by a group of eight farming families in Guangdong province, led by Wen Beiying. They built the company into an agribusiness giant using a unique and highly successful contract farming model.
Wens Foodstuffs' "company + farmer" model involves partnering with a massive network of small family farms. The company provides them with chicks, piglets, feed, and veterinary support, and then buys back the mature animals for processing and sale. This asset-light model has allowed for tremendous and rapid growth. After the company went public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the founding families, including Wu Jianshu, who inherited her husband's stake, became billionaires.
Advertisement