May 22, 2025

Why China's yellow-feather broiler market shrink in market share

In 2024, the number of broiler chickens slaughtered in China totalled 13.39 billion, surpassing 2020 to set a new historical high.

For yellow-feather broilers, which once accounted for nearly 50% of the Chinese broiler market, their market share has been on a downward trajectory over the past decade, falling below 30% in the past two years.

The decline in market share can be attributed to several factors. The most significant one concerns environmental policies enacted after 2015, which led to the closure of many small and medium-sized farms and severely impacted the production capacity of yellow-feather broilers. Furthermore, public health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, accelerated the implementation of bans on live poultry sales; by the end of 2024, nationwide bans significantly disrupted the sales of yellow-feather broilers.

Furthermore, the yellow-feather broiler market is facing challenges from both ends of the supply chain. Low-priced hybrid broilers are steadily encroaching on the market. Ten years ago, hybrid broilers made up only 5% of the Chinese broiler market; in recent years, their market share rose to 17%. As China's economic growth slows, consumers are increasingly price-sensitive, making hybrid broilers an attractive alternative.

Even in the high-end market, the yellow-feather broiler lost its ground. White-feather broilers have seized the high-end chilled and frozen sales channels through effective branding. Moreover, the development of specialty yellow-feather broilers has been hampered by regional brand fragmentation and a lack of standardisation.

To preserve its unique taste, yellow-feather broilers also need to be distributed through the entire cold chain, with logistics costs accounting for 15%-20% of the sales price. The logistics costs for white-feather frozen products are only 5%-8%.

Yellow-feather broiler producers attempted to push sales online but faced challenges in e-commerce. For instance, e-commerce users prefer ready-to-cook portions, while yellow-feather chickens are typically sold as whole birds (accounting for over 70% of sales). Last year, yellow-feather chicken cut products, like chicken legs and wings, were expected to make up less than 15% of e-commerce sales. Additionally, yellow-feather broilers face strong price competition on e-commerce platforms.

To reverse the decline in the Chinese yellow-feather broiler market, it is crucial for industry players to focus on traditional flavour produced with modern efficiency. This can be achieved by innovation, technology adoption and overcoming sales channel limitations with advancements in cold chain logistics and e-commerce.

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