Hog Production in China Has Slowed Down in Recent Years

In recent years, the economic output from China's animal production industry has risen to around RMB 800 billion or 31% of the total economic output from the Farming, Forestry, Livestock and Fisheries industries. By direct comparison, the animal production industry is 8.5 times more than Forestry, 2.8 times more than Fisheries, and 0.55 times more than Farming.

In the animal production industry, pork production comprises 66% of all meat produced in China. Pork consumption also accounts for two-thirds of all meat consumed in the country, and was high as 67.8% in Shanghai.

Therefore, production of live hogs and pork has a very important role in the advancement of the agriculture industry and farmers' standard of living as well as meeting the demand from Chinese consumers.

Hog Production Has Slowed Down In Recent Years

Industry people from the major producing-regions confirmed that growth has slowed down in recent years, due to the following reasons:

1.  Compared to other sectors and auxiliary services in the industry, return on investment has been lower considering the higher capital, longer production cycle, higher market risks;

 

2.  Certain areas were plagued by swine diseases, incurring greater expenses in vaccinations and creating uncertainties;

 

3.  Pig farmers were discouraged by the heavy taxes on pig production and distribution chain in some major areas;

 

4.  Other factors such as lower demand from international markets, slower growth in consumption in the domestic market.

For the period May 2001 to February 2003, eight official surveys were conducted in the ten major producing areas, and statistics showed that the number of live pigs increased only in two surveys, and were lower in 6 survey findings. Below are the details: