BEIJING - Alltech Inc, one of the world's largest animal health and nutrition companies, will achieve annual revenue of $1 billion in China by 2015 and make a contribution to the nation's production of pork, said Pearse Lyons, company founder and president.

"I would love China to be our single-most important market, because there are 1.3 billion people and their consumption capabilities are strong," Lyons said.

The company's focus is on improving animal performance and growth, digestion, and reproduction by offering yeast-based, natural nutritional products.

An estimated 600 million pigs are consumed annually in China, and most are currently raised on traditional feeds without additives.

According to Rabobank Group, a financial service provider, the gap between pork supply and demand could be between 2 and 2.5 million tons in 2012. This year, 1.1 to 1.4 million tons of pork and pork offal will be imported, at least 25 percent more than in 2010.

According to Lyons, the company has been growing at 20 percent year-on-year for three decades and expects global revenue totaling $700 million this year, 10 percent of it from China.

"We target $4 billion by 2015, $1 billion in China," Lyons said

Alltech entered China in the 1980s and it business here has been growing by 20 percent year-on-year. It will invest $9.5 million this year in its facility in Tianjin. The plant produces natural minerals and proteins for feed with a total output capacity of 30,000 tons every year.

Lyons said that the company's nutritional products help increase the reproduction of the animals. He said in pig raising, $10 worth of Alltech products can yield three more pigs, worth $45.

Alltech is worth $2 billion, Lyons said, because of its profitability and business performance. But, he said, it will never go public so it can keep its corporate strategy independent.

"Instead, we use reinvestment to expand our businesses," Lyons said. "Over the next three years, we will reinvest $400 million globally and maybe 20 percent will come to China."