• Corpus ID: 12261255

Poultry sector in China : structural changes during the past decade and future trends

@inproceedings{Bingsheng2008PoultrySI,
  title={Poultry sector in China : structural changes during the past decade and future trends},
  author={Ke Bingsheng and Han Yijun},
  year={2008}
}

• Ke Bingsheng, Han Yijun
• Published 2008

The poultry sector in China has experienced vigorous growth over the past two decades, both in terms of poultry numbers and level of output per bird. Higher levels of production are associated with the spread of intensive systems in which food conversion ratios are high. Poultry production has increased its share of China's total livestock production – growing much faster than pork production. Growth has been accompanied by great changes in the structure of production. The poultry sector is no longer dominated by hundreds of millions of smallholders keeping birds as a sideline activity. Many small farmers have given up production , especially in the economically more developed eastern provinces of the country. Drivers of change in the poultry sector include, on the demand side, demographic changes – rising population and increased urbanization; income growth both in urban and rural areas; developments in transportation, the processing industry and retailing; rising per capita consumption; and the requirements of export markets. In rural areas, increased incomes from non-farm activities and better marketing infrastructure have reduced need for smallholders to keep poultry as a cash-generating sideline or for home consumption. On the supply side, drivers of change include technological innovation and its diffusion – feed processing has played a decisive role; and the provision of better public services, such as technical innovation, extension, disease prevention and control, quality standards and information. For the future, it is expected that demand will continue to rise and that the intensifica-tion process will continue. Small-scale and non-commercial farmers will continue their exit from the industry. It is possible that the number of poultry farmers in China could halve by 2020. Nonetheless, poultry keeping remains an important economic option for improving the livelihoods poorer smallholders in the mountainous western parts of the country. Increasingly stringent quality and food-safety standards demanded by importing countries will favour the intensification process. Integrated operations in particular are well placed to implement reliable quality control. Constraints to poultry sector development in China are likely to include high feed prices, particularly maize and soybean. Avian influenza and other diseases will have a major effect on the development of the sector, and may further promote intensification. Key policy objectives for the poultry sector in China are: to provide sufficient and safe food to the consumer; to provide income and employment for farmers; and to protect the Poultry in the 21 st Century 2 environment and …