Yurun's rumored exit from the ham sausage sector has recently become a hot topic in the market.

On the evening of September 28, Nanjing Yurun Food Co., Ltd. issued a statement saying that the relevant claims deviate from the facts. The disclosure in the 2026 interim report of listed company Yurun Food (01068.HK) that "there was no revenue from high-temperature meat products during the period" only applies to entities within the listed company's consolidated financial statements, and does not mean Yurun has exited the high-temperature meat products sector. Nanjing Yurun stated that the production and sales of ham sausages and other high-temperature meat products under Yurun's non-listed entities are still operating normally, with no exit plan.

It can be inferred that the source of the above rumor was the 2026 interim report released by Yurun Food at the end of August. The report showed that Yurun Food's current business mainly includes chilled fresh meat, frozen meat, and low-temperature meat products, while the high-temperature meat products business has been discontinued. In fact, Yurun Food had already stopped its high-temperature meat products business for some time. At the end of 2024, certain deep-processing plant lease agreements of the company expired, and the related business was terminated accordingly. However, the listed company stopping production does not mean that Yurun brand ham sausages have exited the market.

In 2005, Yurun Food was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In January 2022, Yurun Food underwent restructuring due to a debt crisis, transferring control of 44 subsidiaries, including Nanjing Yurun, to Jiangsu Yurun Selected Food Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jiangsu Yurun"). Since then, the main production and sales entities of Yurun brand ham sausages have shifted to Nanjing Yurun or affiliated companies of its parent Jiangsu Yurun, though some products are still produced by subsidiaries of Yurun Food. In terms of equity relationships, Jiangsu Yurun and Yurun Food do not have a direct equity relationship, but the actual controllers are both from the Zhu family, where Yurun founder Zhu Yicai belongs. Tianyancha shows that Zhu Yicai currently indirectly holds 100% of Jiangsu Yurun's shares. As of the end of June, Zhu Yicai and his wife Wu Xueqin indirectly held 25.82% of Yurun Food's shares. Therefore, the "Yurun" in the current market actually exists along two lines: the listed company's business and the non-listed entities' business. Nanjing Yurun's clarification this time is essentially emphasizing this business boundary.

However, Yurun brand ham sausages now have a relatively low market share. Data from Mashaungying shows that in the first half of 2026, in traditional offline retail channels, the top five in the ambient ham sausage market were Shuanghui, Jinluo, New Hope Liuhe, Licheng, and Yurun, together accounting for more than 94% of the market share. Among them, in the first quarter of 2026, Yurun's market share was 1.15%, while Shuanghui's was 68.88%; in the second quarter, Yurun's was 1.13%, and Shuanghui's was 67.41%. In terms of market share, although Yurun is still among the market leaders, there is already a clear gap between it and the leader Shuanghui.

Yurun Food's operating scale has also shrunk significantly. In 2025, the company achieved revenue of HK$446 million, a year-on-year decrease of 55.01%, with a net loss of HK$72.682 million. In the first half of 2026, Yurun Food achieved revenue of HK$248 million, a year-on-year decrease of 2.75%, with a net loss of HK$6.979 million.

On the other side, Shuanghui, which holds an absolute advantage in the ham sausage market, is also not having as easy a time as before. Henan Shuanghui Investment & Development Co., Ltd. (000895.SZ) was formerly Luohe Meat Processing Plant, launched Shuanghui brand ham sausages in 1992, and subsequently gradually became the leader in the domestic ambient ham sausage market. However, from the overall industry situation, the ambient ham sausage market has entered a period of adjustment. Euromonitor International retail monitoring data shows that the domestic consumer retail market size of ambient ham sausages reached a peak of 48 billion yuan in 2015, and has gradually declined since then. Shuanghui's sales volume of packaged meat products, including ham sausages, has also declined for many consecutive years. Sales volume reached 1.5869 million tons in 2020 and dropped to 1.3611 million tons in 2025, a decrease of about 220,000 tons over five years. In 2025, Shuanghui achieved operating revenue of 59.274 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 0.48%; net profit attributable to shareholders was 5.105 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.32%. In the first half of 2026, the company achieved operating revenue of 28.086 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.16%; net profit attributable to shareholders was 2.306 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 0.76%. Although total external sales volume of meat products reached 1.8 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 14.86%, due to falling pork prices, the sales volume growth did not drive revenue growth.