April 28, 2006

 

China's strong meat demand growth to continue

 

 

Strong growth in production and consumption of meat in China will continue, backed by profound social change and robust economic growth, a prominent Chinese industry academic said Friday (Apr 28).

 

Zhou Guanghong, Vice President/Professor at Nanjing Agricultural University and Chairman of the Chinese Association of Animal Products Processing, pointed to several factors driving this growth.

 

He cited figures by researchers Brower & Waldron that showed total per capita meat consumption in China could rise to 60kg by 2020 from about 33 kg now in cities and 18 kg in rural areas.

 

Steady economic growth, the restructuring of the rural sector and changes in lifestyle will lead to more meat consumption, Zhou said in an address to the World Meat Congress.

 

Meat production in Asia has increased four times in the past 25 years, with China output growing a dramatic six times, he said.

 

Pork remains the dominant meat produced by China - indeed, it produces about half of total global output - but pork's proportion of overall meat production is declining in China, while that of poultry, beef, and sheep and goats meat is increasing, he said.

 

Only a small amount of meat produced in China is exported.

 

Zhou did not say whether production growth will be able to expand to meet expected consumption.

 

A major factor underpinning China's growing meat consumption is strong economic growth, with gross national product expanding 9 percent a year for many years, he said.

 

"We can expect to continue at a similar rate for a long time," Zhou said.

 

Another important factor is the changes to the rural sector that are seeing the number of rural producers falling and the number of rural consumers rising, he said.

 

About 70 percent of China's population, or more than 800 million people, live in rural areas, but these transitional consumers as they are known only account for 30 percent of meat consumption.

 

"The restructuring of the new rural sector will lead to more meat consumption in rural areas," he said.

 

The increase in meat consumption in rural areas was twice that in urban areas in 2004, he said.

 

Zhou said food safety and quality are increasingly issues of concern for Chinese consumers, who also want greater convenience, particularly in the major cities of Beijing and Shanghai, he said.