February 1, 2023

 

Industry players take hold of opportunities in China's burgeoning broiler market

An eFeedLink Hot Topic

 

Thanks to China's huge population and rapid economic development over the past 40 years, the country's chicken production has consistently ranked second in the world.

 

In the field of broiler chickens, yellow-feather broilers, which are preferred by Chinese consumers, are usually bought slaughtered alive from markets. However, animal disease outbreaks and the pandemic have led to shutdowns of live poultry markets, delivering a heavy blow to the yellow feather broiler segment. With unsold chickens being cold stored at retail terminals, this affects the taste and thus, consumers are unwilling to pay a premium for these chickens.

 

Native yellow feather broilers are usually sold alive. However, they face competition from cheaper, lower-quality hybrid broilers.

 

China's white feather broiler industry is identical to the Western model. Currently, only its hatching, feed production, commercial broiler and slaughterhouse operations are approaching or have met international standards. Other operations, such as breeder farming and food processing, are far from meeting international standards. Before 2019, white feather broiler breeders were mostly imported. Later, imports and prices fluctuated, directly impacting China's commercial broiler market.

 

In December 2021, China approved three locally developed white-feather broiler breeds, namely Fujian Shengnong's Shengze 901, Guangdong Xinguang Nongmu's Guangming 2, and Beijing Wode's Wode 188. This is a breakthrough for China's white feather broiler sector. Since June 10 this year, the first batch of 96,000 sets of Shengze 901 parent stock chicks were supplied to the market in batches.

 

Fujian, the biggest integrated white feather broiler enterprise in China, produces more than 500 million Shengze 901 broilers. This, in addition to the latest sales of parent stock chicks, has helped the company to capture over 10% of China's white-feather broiler market.

 

Guangdong Xinguang Nongmu has sold nearly 600,000 sets of Guangming 2 parent stock chick in six months as of November 19, 2022. Meanwhile, since April 2022, the production of Wode 188 commercial broilers has reached 140,000 birds in total.

 

China is self-sustainable in the area of its breeder broiler production, with a production capacity set to reach 20 million sets by the end of 2022.

 

That said, its poultry industry chain is still making headway to be a major international player. Major hurdles lie in the level of technology and consumption habits. Processed poultry products are the sector's weakest link.

  

- Shi Tao, eFeedLink