In 2024, China slaughtered 13,394 million broiler chickens, surpassing 2020 to set a new historical high. Despite the record-high output, profits from white-feather broiler farming were disappointing. From 2023 to 2024, the annual return of white-feather broiler farming averaged ¥0.37 per kilogramme (US$0.05/kg) and ¥0.25/kg (US$0.03/kg), respectively, while in January-February 2025, farming returns dropped further to ¥1.02/kg (US$0.14/kg).

Statistics show that between January and November 2024, China's renewal volume of GPS broiler breeders totalled 146.01 million sets, a 25.78% increase from 2023. 741,100 sets were imported, surging by 68.05% on-year; 719,000 sets were domestically produced (including Cobb China's breeder supply), falling by 0.11% compared with the same period in 2023. The US accounted for 87.59% of China's total import of broiler breeders during this period.

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.

EFL AG-DATA's preliminary estimates show that China's layer feed output in 2024 at 25.83 million tonnes, a drop of 1.49% from 2023. The country's broiler feed output was 73.83 million tonnes, an increase of 2.09% from 2023. Concerning layer feed output, the output of compound feed last year was 22.92 million tonnes, a drop of 2.11% from 2023.

According to Yihuinong's statistics, China's feed consumption in 2024 was 266.16 million tonnes, a decrease of 2.01% compared to 2023. Major categories such as pig feed, egg poultry feed, meat poultry feed, aquafeed, and ruminant feed all saw reductions, except for meat poultry feed. This is a very rare phenomenon. The traditional feed industry in China, like other industries, has entered an era of capacity reduction and stock competition.

As livestock inventories diminished before Chinese New Year in January, feed consumption dwindled in tandem in the following month. Feed producers limited the purchases of feed additives amid slow sales. In the vitamins market, prices of most products were mainly stable with limited price movement. However, niacin prices dropped by 19%.

China's feed output shrunk but remained above the level of February 2025. In February, due to the long Chinese New Year holiday in the country and fewer days in the month, both feed consumption and output decreased on a month-on-month basis. However, the total feed output in February was significantly higher compared with February 2024.

In January 2025, most listed pig companies in China that released their 2024 preliminary performance reports recorded significant increases in profits, recovering from deficits in recent years. Muyuan projected a sales revenue of ¥136.225 billion (US$18.9 billion) in 2024 and a net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of ¥17-¥18 billion (US$2.36-$2.5 billion), up 499% to 522%, respectively, compared with a loss of ¥4.263 billion (US$592.3 million) in 2023.

Feed producers in China were cautious as they stockpiled inventories prior to the New Year holidays. As domestic livestock markets are traditionally weak after China's festive holidays in February, livestock producers were not keen to place orders for feed additives given the bleak outlook of the Chinese economy. In the vitamins market, vitamin A products led a fall with a sharp drop of 24% in December last year, as high prices hampered sales.

Pig production in Thailand rose by 6.19% last year, reaching 21.723 million heads, compared to 20.456 million in 2023. Large pig farms can be attributed to this growth, but not everyone is happy about the impact caused by the boost in pork production.

Listed companies in the pig breeding sectors of Mainland China and Hong Kong have released performance reports for the first half of 2024. Among the 20 listed companies with a slaughter volume of more than 300,000 heads in the first half of the year, 11 companies made profits and nine suffered losses. However, the extent of losses was significantly reduced.

Consumers in China remain doubtful of pre-slaughter native broilers, as it is generally believed that the flavor of native broilers is lost significantly when chilled or frozen. This is the main reason for decreased consumption. In response to this market development, Wen's, China's largest native broiler producer, had looked into the pre-cooked food segment.

In 2024, the full-process profit of China's layer farming fell before climbing, showing a V-shaped pattern. Enjoying a profit of CNY6.67 (US$0.93) per bird in January 2024, the layer full-process fell to a deficit of CNY0.13 (US$0.02) per bird in April, returning to the black only in June and surging to CNY14.38 (US$2.00) per bird by October. Since 2020, the annual average full-process profit was CNY13.39 (US$1.86) per bird, which means it returned to the five-year average level in October 2024.

From the beginning of 2024 to the end of October, the price of white-feather broilers in China stayed between ¥8.00-7.50/kg (US$1.11-1.04/kg), with an average price of ¥7.85/kg (US$1.09/kg), down 12.66% from the average price of ¥8.99/kg (US$1.25/kg) in 2023, and down 13.37% from the average price of ¥9.06/kg (US$1.26 /kg) in 2022, the lowest in the past three years. Among livestock, the price of white-feather broilers is the most sensitive to changes in supply and demand.

On September 9, 2024, China's Ministry of Commerce announced the start of an anti-dumping investigation on imported rapeseed from Canada. According to statistics from China’s National Bureau of Statistics, Canadian rapeseed production in 2023 was 20 million tonnes while exports were 7.45 million tonnes (accounting for 37.25%, of which 5.05 million tonnes or 67.8% were exported to China). China's rapeseed production in 2023 was 16.3 million tonnes and its total import volume was 5.49 million tonnes, of which imports from Canada accounted for 91%.

The poultry industry in Indonesia has faced significant challenges since the government imposed a ban on antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) in January 2018. For decades, AGPs were widely used to enhance poultry performance and maintain gut health, but concerns over antimicrobial resistance (AMR) led to their prohibition. According to animal nutritionist Dr. Budi Tangendjaja, the ban led to poultry farmers suffering from poor performance while the feed conversion ratio (FCR) went up by several points.

In 2021, since three Chinese white-feathered broiler breeds — namely Shengze 901 (SZ901), Guangming No. 2, and WOD 188 — were officially approved for production in China, their market shares have expanded rapidly. By the end of 2023, the market share of domestic white-feathered broiler species increased to 25.1% and is expected to reach more than 30% in 2025. Meanwhile, Sunner Group, China's largest integrated white-feathered broiler, also expanded overseas by exporting to Africa.

China's feed formulations were previously modelled upon those of Western countries, especially the corn and soybean meal formulation model of the United States. However, with the costs of corn and soybean rising, there are concerns over food security in the country where 80% of soybean supply relies on imports. In 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued the "Work Plan for Reducing and Substituting Corn and Soybean Meal in Feed" and the "Technical Plan for Reducing and Substituting Corn and Soybean Meal in Pig and Chicken Feed"

Vietnam's pig herd had grown by 3.5% year-on-year as of November 2024, according to the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. In addition, in the past month, pork prices were seen to be on an uptrend, notably ahead of Vietnam's Tet which will start on January 29 this year. Earlier, the US Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA-FAS) noted that hog prices were on the rise from January to September — with the average prices, as of September, hitting US$2.53/kilogramme, an increase of 30% from January.

Chicken meat production in the Philippines is expected to rise to 1.63 million metric tonnes (MMT) next year for read-to-cook products, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA-FAS) office in Manila in its October 3 update. The amount is up by about 4% year-on-year. This growth was attributed to falling feed costs, fewer areas with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) cases, and the continuing impact of African swine fever (ASF) on pork production. Meanwhile, however, poultry raisers in the Philippines are still experiencing losses, with the farmgate price of chicken falling to US$1.72 per kilogramme.

The July 29 fire at BASF's plant for vitamins A and E in Ludwigshafen, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, led to the company temporarily suspending deliveries of these vitamins. Following the incident, European suppliers and traders have refrained from offering prices for both vitamins. Additionally, feed additive traders in Vietnam were closely monitoring the impact. In the weeks that followed, the prices of vitamins A and E decreased in China indicating that buyers were holding back purchases after an initial panic between late July and mid-August.

The Finance subcommittee of the Philippine Senate approved the ₱178.273 billion proposed 2025 budget of the country's Department of Agriculture (DA) on October 21. As that happened, the chair of the subcommittee, Senator Cynthia Villar, assured the passing of the Corn Bill for the Bureau of Plant Industry. Sponsored by Villar, Senate Bill No. 2625 under Committee Report No. 246 seeks to drive "the competitiveness and expansion" of the Philippine yellow corn industry.

The latest data from Vietnam’s Department of Livestock Production showed that in 2022, the domestic breeding sow herd reached 3.03 million, an 8% increase from 2021. While the commercial pig sector contributes 37.2% of the total sow herd in the country, it accounts for 47% of the total number of pigs sold in 2022 thanks to higher productivity. In response to the substantial growth in breeding herds and piglet production by large corporations, alongside fluctuating piglet prices, many farms have chosen to produce their own piglets. The practice of raising sows and producing piglets from birth to finishing stages (farrowing-finishing model) is gaining popularity among independent farms, especially after the outbreak of African swine fever.

The importance of corn in Philippine swine farming cannot be overstated. A document by the Department of Agriculture (DA) in the Philippines' Cagayan Valley Region shows that yellow corn constitutes most of feed ingredients in a local pig's food - at an amount of 4.6 kg of the daily feed allowance for five pigs weighing 60-65 kg to a market weight range of 90-100 kg. With the Philippines' corn production hammered by El Nino and armyworm infestations in recent times, the country's corn import is set to rise this year - according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) - reaching a volume of 1.3 million metric tons.

As the poultry industry in Indonesia grapples with soaring feed costs and sustainability challenges, researchers and farmers are increasingly turning to alternative feed ingredients. Those innovations not only promise to reduce expenses but can also enhance the nutritional value of poultry diets. With feed costs accounting for up to 70% of poultry production expenses, the search for viable substitutes has become critical.

Following a downtrend in pork consumption in the Philippines since August, this has recently improved as consumers' fear of African swine fever abated, according to the country's Department of Agriculture. Furthermore, as the December holiday season nears, demand for pork is anticipated to pick up. The development may then continue a positive trend into 2025, for which the US Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA-FAS) post in Manila foresees pork consumption at 1.58 million metric tons (MMT) carcass-weight equivalent (CWE). The volume represents a 2% increase from 2024. https://www.efeedlink.com/contents/11-13-2024/f5fbffd7-4fbe-45d7-b0fb-562fa94814a9-0002.html

India's pig population is just above nine million, according to the 2019 Indian Livestock Census. The country's contribution to the total pig production in Asia is about 1% (China, on the other hand, contributes more than 80%). For the past 15 years, the growth rate of the pig population in India has been on a downtrend.

In the first half of 2024, China's overall ruminant feed production was 69.43 million tonnes, a 7.98% drop from the same period of 2023. The production of ruminant feeds has been low since February. In past years, ruminant feed production had been stable or started to increase in the May-June period. But, this year, it shrank from the February-April period, a crucial factor resulting in the sharp decline in production in H1 2024.

In 2023, China's total raw milk output reached 41.97 million tonnes, a year-on-year increase of 6.7% compared to 2022. Chinese raw milk output expanded continuously during the 2018-2023 period. Meanwhile, the production of dairy products last year was 30.55 million tonnes, a year-on-year increase of 3.1% compared to 2022. But, the growth rate of dairy product output was lower than that of raw milk, signalling weak demand for dairy products.

As of August 7, 2024, the average wholesale price of beef in China was ¥59.25/kg (US$8.31), down 16.64% from ¥71.08/kg on January 7. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the price of beef (boneless whole meat) in the distribution market was ¥84.90/kg in early March 2023 and fell below ¥80/kg at the end of 2023. As of June this year, it plummeted to ¥67.13/kg (US$9.42). Data from Chinabric.com show that in the 23rd week of 2024, the average price of live beef cattle in Shandong Province was ¥22.74/kg (prices were as low as ¥18/kg in some regions. As beef cattle farming has a break-even range of ¥24-28/kg (US$3.37-3.93), the price of beef cattle in most parts of the province continues to fall below the break-even line.