Stop pork from becoming easy meat

Pork is an important part of the Chinese diet and economy and is likely to remain so in the foreseeable future given the increasing demand for meat because of rising incomes and urbanization. As the largest producer and consumer of pork, China accounts for half of the world's pork production and consumption.

In the coming decade, China's total pork production and consumption is projected to increase by a little over 20 percent based on new figures from the United States Department of Agriculture. While the increasing appetite for other meats, especially poultry, in China is expected to slow down the growth in pork consumption, its dominant position in the Chinese diet will remain intact for some time to come. In per person terms, the consumption of pork is projected to rise three times more than that of poultry and seven times more than that of beef.

The structure of pig farming in China has been changing rapidly as part of the larger transformation of agriculture. There is a growing shift away from small-scale backyard farming to specialized and large-scale commercial farming. Rising production costs (due mainly to higher feed costs), greater demand for food safety (due to more outbreaks of animal disease and use of unsafe feed additives), shrinking farm workforce (due to faster rural-urban migration) and government policies to promote large commercial farms are some of the key factors responsible for the rapidly vanishing small pig farms.