October 31, 2007

 

Animal production costs rising in western China

 

 

Meat production continue to rise strongly in China's northern Shannxi province while production costs continue to rise in China's western region, according to China's statistics bureaus. 

 

Western China is generally considered an agricultural backwater compared to the rest of China's provinces. However, recent developments have caused production prices to increase dramatically in some provinces. For example, in the western Xinjiang province, known more for its milk and cattle production, production costs for cattle was up only 0.7 percent while pig production costs was up 62.4 percent.

 

Meanwhile, in Shaanxi Province, live pig output totaled 10 million heads in the first three quarters of 2007, rising 7.1 percent on-year,

 

Sow population rose 2.6 percent to 988,000 heads, according to the latest information released by the Provincial Bureau of Statistics.

 

Both the cattle and poultry populations continued to rise.

 

The cattle population was 3.0 million heads while poultry population was 71.9 million as of end September.

 

Meat output rose 6.8 percent to 1.0 million tonnes while dairy products rose 8.5 percent to 1.15 million tonnes. Poultry and egg production rose 3.5 percent to 362,000 tonnes.

 

Grain output in the province rose 3.8 percent on-year to 11.9 million tonnes, with planting area up 0.6 percent to 3.47 million hectares.

 

In the western province of Xinjiang, production prices of rice and cotton saw a steep increase of 21.6 percent and 17.7 while wheat saw a relative mild increase of 2.1 percent in the first three quarters of 2007, according to the National Bureau of Statistics

 

Prices of live cattle saw the least increase, up 0.7 percent, chicken was up 13.1 percent while egg production price was up 35.3 percent.

 

Live pig prices saw the greatest increase ¡§C up 62.4 percent.

 

In Ningxia province, in the north-west, the production prices of animal husbandry products increased by 9.98 percent, with the prices of live pigs and poultry up by 26.32 percent and 20.55 percent respectively.

 

In Qinghai Province in the west, animal husbandry production price index was 120.92 in the third quarter of 2007, up by 20.92 percent on-year,

 

Average live pig price of farming households in the Province was RMB10.99/kg, even higher than the net pork price, with a price index of 154.75, up by 54.75 percent  on-year.

 

The production price index of live cattle reached 110.78, up by 10.78 percent on-year.