Chinese meat imports exceed exports in 2011

China exported 894,000 tonnes (t) of meat, worth US$3.47bn in 2011, while meat imports totalled 1.9 million tonnes (mt), valued at US$3.42bn. Pork accounted for 324,000 t, or 36.2% of total meat exports, while pork imports increased to 1.37 mt, occupying 71.7% of total meat imports. The CMA has not released year-on-year comparisons.

According to CMA vice president Chen Wei, who was speaking at a recent meeting staged by the Irish Food Board in Beijing, nationwide slaughters dropped by 19.2% year-on-year in 2011 with 3.2 billion head, while the total assets of the slaughtering industry increased 26.64% year-on-year, reaching CNY367.2bn (US$58.24bn).

Sales revenue increased by 32.97% to CNY930.3bn, with total industrial profit rising by 40.22% to CNY49.2bn. By the end of 2011, China’s meat consumption was 79.57 mt, 63.5% (50.53 mt) of which was pork.

Beef output in 2011 was 6.48 mt, accounting for 8.14% of total meat consumption while lamb at 3.93 mt represented 4.94%. China produced 16.96 mt of chicken meat, 21.31% of total meat consumption. Average meat consumption per capita was 59.1 kg by the end of 2011, unchanged on 2010. Pork consumption was 37.5 kg, down 0.3 kg from the previous year while poultry consumption increased 0.3 kg to 12.6 kg. Average beef consumption at 4.8 kg was down 0.1 kg. Lamb consumption hit 2.9 kg, down 0.1 kg.

China’s meat output is tied to government efforts to consistently increase grain output: 2011 was the eighth consecutive year of good harvests. According to the ‘Report on China’s Economic and Social Development Plan’ passed by the National People’s Congress (NPC) in early 2011 China was set to increase the output of meat and aquatic products to 80 mt and 54.3 mt respectively, up 0.9% and 1.2% from last year.

The CMA is a national organisation representing over 600 meat processors, exporters and cold chain logistics firms in China, overseen by the country’s ministry of civil administration.