April 30, 2025

 

How China's poultry trade fare in 2024

 

China imported 71,700 tonnes of chicken in October 2024, a month-on-month increase of 0.04% but a year-on-year drop of 27.74%.

 

The country's total import volume from January to October was 786,300 tonnes, a year-on-year drop of 30.18%.

 

In recent years, with the continuous development of China's chicken industry, domestic chicken production has gradually increased, hence cutting the country's reliance on chicken imports.

 

Statistics show that in Q1 2024, China's poultry output totalled 7.6 billion birds, an increase of 410 million birds or 5.7% over the same period a year ago. This was the highest poultry output in the same period over the past five years.

 

In the first half of 2024, poultry meat output totalled 11.82 million tonnes, an increase of 700,000 tonnes or 6.3% on-year. In the second half of the year, the domestic output of white-feathered broilers was expected to continue to increase, reaching an annual high of 8.9-9 billion birds in 2024. However, the continuous expansion of domestic white-feathered broiler production capacity has led to an oversupply of chicken in China.

 

Meanwhile, certain developments affecting the international market have also impacted China's chicken imports. For instance, Brazil, an important source of chicken imports for China, reported an outbreak of Newcastle disease at a poultry farm in Rio Grande do Sul on July 18, 2024. The Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture suspended the export of poultry meat to many countries including China.

 

Furthermore, the production cost of chicken in Europe and the US has expanded, hence driving up prices and making it uncompetitive in the global market. 

 

China imported 452,000 tonnes of chicken products in the first half of 2024, of which 261,500 tonnes were from Brazil, accounting for 57.86% of the total chicken imports in that period.

 

As chicken prices dropped in China amid higher production volumes, the competitiveness of domestic chicken improved as the costs of chicken imports rose.

 

China's chicken exports have also expanded significantly. The country's export volume of chicken in October 2024 was 70,800 tonnes, a month-on-month increase of 1.79% and a year-on-year increase of 33.08%. The total export volume from January to October was 613,800 tonnes, a year-on-year increase of 37.70%.

 

Since March 2024, China's export volume of chicken has remained above 60,000 tonnes for eight straight months, and chicken exports in October continued to break the monthly high.

About EFL AG-DATA

EFL AG-DATA is a startup incubated by Singapore's Nanyang Technological University's Innovation and Enterprise Company (NTUitive) Incubator Program. It is developing an agricultural hub that will revolutionize the feed-to-meat supply chain in China and Southeast Asia countries through data-driven solutions. EFL's mission is to empower farms through innovative data-based services that solve complex problems and enhance productivity.

-EFL AG-DATA