October 3, 2023

 

In brief: China's producers of poultry breeder grow market share over imports

 

 

China's poultry layer industry is partially reliant on imports.

 

However, local breeder layer companies control 70% of the Chinese breeder layer market, while the market shares of imported breeds dropped to 30%.

In fact, local breeder producers have the production capacity to produce twice the quantity of China's demand for grandparent layer breeders. China's yellow feather broiler breeders are 100% domestically produced, while the white feather broiler industry depends significantly on imports for breeders.

 

In December 2021, the Chinese government approved the production of three local fast-growth white feather broiler breeds. This was the start of China's self-reliance on white feather broiler breeders.

 

In the first quarter of 2023, a total of 342,600 sets of grandparent stock white feather broiler breeders were sold. Key local breeder companies have, by then, controlled one-third of the market within two years.

 

The profit margin of every segment of China's white feather broiler industry is thin. Competition begins from the breeder broiler segment. A good set of grandparent stock breeder broilers can produce 60 sets of parent breeders, while ordinary ones can only produce 50 sets.

 

Meanwhile, a set of excellent parent stock breeders can expand up to 130 commercial chickens, while those from ordinary parent stocks can only produce 110 chickens. Therefore, excellent grandparent stock breeders can produce 7,800 commercial chickens, which is about 50% higher than the 5,500 commercial chickens produced from ordinary ones. This is why among the current parent stock breeders — imported ones, which are of excellent quality — cost ¥60-80/set (US$8.28-11.04), while the domestic ones cost only ¥20-30/set.

 

However, due to the impact of the bird flu outbreak globally, along with disruptions of international flights, broiler farms in China do not have many options.

 

In the grand scheme of things, China is highly dependent on the international market, and its animal husbandry industry cannot do without the international market.

 

The current measures of the Chinese animal husbandry industry are not to decouple the international market but, to an extent, guarantee technical capabilities to meet the increasing needs of the domestic animal husbandry industry.

 

- David Lin, eFeedLink