National Science and Technology Progress Award Won: National Hard-Tech Recognition as XJ-Bio Leads the Trace Mineral Track through Innovation
On July 8, the National Science and Technology Awards Ceremony, the Academicians Conference of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and the 11th National Congress of the China Association for Science and Technology were held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, presented awards to recipients including the winners of the Highest National Award for Science and Technology, and delivered an important address.
The project “Development and Application of New Feed Trace Mineral Products,” jointly advanced by Changsha XJ-Bio Engineering Co., Ltd. (XJ-Bio) and partners including the Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISA-CAS), received the Second Prize of the 2025 National Science and Technology Progress Award. XJ-Bio Chairman Huang Yiqiang attended the ceremony as a representative of the core contributors and accepted the award.
The National Science and Technology Progress Award is among the highest honors in China’s science and technology innovation system. This weighty recognition affirms XJ-Bio’s more than two decades of deep work in the trace mineral track and its commitment to independent innovation. It also underscores the company’s strength in driving the global trace mineral industry with new quality productive forces.
Tackling Pain Points Head-On
Rewriting the Industry’s Underlying Logic
The award-winning project targets three core pain points in China’s feed industry: the absence of a robust evaluation system, the relatively low utilization efficiency of inorganic salt products, and persistently high risks of metal pollution from manure.
Starting from fundamental research, the project systematically clarified the intrinsic mechanisms of trace mineral metabolism and regulation in livestock and poultry. It pioneered internationally an integrated three-tier biological potency evaluation system—precise chelation-rate measurement, cell/organoid screening, and animal-model validation—decisively addressing the long-standing industry challenge of knowing “how much was used, how much was absorbed, and how effective it was.”
On the process side, the project successfully developed two core technologies: solid-phase / semi-solid-phase synthesis and particulate crystal-form synthesis. It built 29 production lines for next-generation trace mineral additive products and established a “reduced inclusion with enhanced efficacy” technology system covering major production species, including swine, poultry, and aquaculture. Application results show that the system can markedly improve animal production performance, effectively lower farming costs, and substantially cut metal emissions in manure—delivering both economic and environmental gains.
This systemic breakthrough has broken the long-standing monopoly of overseas companies in high-end trace mineral products. The project has also led the formulation of multiple industry technical standards, comprehensively lifting China’s R&D capability and voice in feed trace minerals, and offering the world an innovative, scalable “China solution” for the sustainable development of animal husbandry.
Two Decades Honing One Edge
Forging a “China Standard” for Trace Minerals
From filling domestic gaps to leading the global trace mineral track, XJ-Bio has consistently used independent innovation as its engine for deep industrial transformation. This award is the crystallization of more than twenty years of close collaboration and joint research with Academician Yin Yulong’s team—seamlessly connecting fundamental mechanisms, product creation, evaluation methods, and industrial application to deliver this national-level achievement.
Two decades of focused craftsmanship have enabled XJ-Bio, on the strength of deep R&D accumulation, to build core technology barriers across the full industry chain. The company is the only enterprise in China holding four National New Product Certificates for Feed and Feed Additives; it achieved the world’s first hydroxy methionine chelates and zinc valine chelates; and it was among the first in China to launch an original hydroxychloride product series—each breakthrough redefining the industry’s technical ceiling.
More than 110 invention patents in trace minerals form a strong intellectual-property moat. Leading or participating in the development and revision of 19 national, association, and local standards has cemented industry discourse power. Seventeen crystal structures have been deposited with the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) and serve as global reference standards for compounds—the “XJ-Bio Standard” is shaping the world.
Deep Industry–Academia–Research Integration
Connecting the Full Innovation Chain
To strengthen its innovation foundation, the company built the industry’s first standardized animal nutrition research center and maintains deep linkages with more than 20 leading universities and research institutes at home and abroad, forming collaborative industry–academia–research platforms. In close partnership with Academician Yin Yulong’s team, the two sides established a seamless mechanism spanning basic research, product R&D, process scale-up, and application validation, completing the innovation pathway from laboratory to industrialization.
Building on long-term scientific accumulation, XJ-Bio has constructed an end-to-end technology matrix covering raw-material screening, process development, product application, and efficacy evaluation. Technical indicators for amino acid complexes (chelates), hydroxychlorides, and multi-trace-mineral formulations have reached internationally leading or advanced levels, driving domestic trace minerals from import substitution to international leadership in a leapfrog upgrade—and substantially strengthening the global competitiveness of China’s high-end feed trace minerals.
Moving Forward with Honor
Toward a More Sustainable Future
Winning the National Science and Technology Progress Award is a new milestone on XJ-Bio’s innovation-led journey and a vivid footnote to more than twenty years of deep industry–academia–research integration.
Looking ahead, the company will continue to focus on the smart nutrition track for trace minerals, strengthen the closed-loop technology chain from R&D to application, and deliver safe, stable, efficient, and environmentally friendly trace mineral products and nutrition solutions to the global feed and livestock industry—advancing with firmer innovative steps toward a more efficient and sustainable future for animal husbandry.