past Issue

Review & Outlook

According the data provided by FAO, in the year 2001, China’s port output was 43 million tons, accounting for 47% of the world’s total output. China is the largest country on pork production and pork consumption in the world.

Although China is the world largest pork production country, it is backward with other countries on the production efficiency, the quality of meat and the pig genetics. The off-taking rate is about 120%, which is relatively low as compared with the off-taking rates of 150-160% in the most developed countries. In 2001, the China’s import of pork was 498 thousand tons, decreased 6.7%, the export was 335 thousand tons, increased 18%. The import is more than export. On the other hand, the export is only accounting for 0.7% of its total production.

The major pork export countries are from North American and Europe. Canada and Denmark are the top exporters in the world with the annual export of 0.5-0.6 million tons each. The major pork import countries are in Asia. Japan and Korea are the top pork importer in the world. China is also one large importer of pork products in the world. China mainly buys the low-end pork products such as offal and exports some high –end products.

At the present, the major factors limit the export of China’s pork can be summarized as the following:

? Lack of consistent quality – it is no doubt China can produce high quality pork and pork products. The problem is that few companies are able to produce/supply the pork and pork products with consistent quality. The live pigs are from different sources, even from the same source, the pigs are fed with different feeds or different ways. Lack of standards and no enforcement of standards at pig production, feed supply and hog slaughtering and pork processing are the key factors that affect the consistency.

? Animal health and disease – the disease is still a main factor limits the export of pork and pork products. The applications of poor quality medication/drugs usually make things worse; the medicines do not cure or prevent the disease and generate unnecessary residuals. The pig production has become a well-managed and technology incentive industry in developed countries. In China, the swine production is still considered as the sideline of farming households with minimum investment and no technology. Some large-scale commercial productions have built modern facilities with imported high quality genetics; however, the traditional mind setting has not changed too much. That is why most large-scale operations in China still achieve the results as the designed.

? Small-scale production – At the present, about 65%-70% of the total swine production in China are operated by the small farming households that each of them only produces 10 head or less pigs each year. This is the part of reason of lacking consistency.

Based on the above analyses, there will be a long way for China to overcome those major restrictions to become a major export country in the world pork market. There are some opportunity for individual large-scale companies to become export-oriented swine producers or pork processors to export pork and pork products to the international market in near future.

Copyright2001 Beseen Consulting Ltd.