Profiles of the Chinese Pig Industry

No matter whom you ask, the answer will be the same: China is the No. 1 pork producer and consumer on this planet. In the year of 2000, 527 million heads of pigs were slaughtered, and nearly 50% of all pork in the world is now produced in China (NBSC, FAO, USDA, 2002). The 1.3 billion consumers seem to prefer pork over any other meats in their meals-essentially all pork produced in the country is consumed domestically. Depending on whom you ask, you will at least have some different answers about the profiles of the Chinese pig industry. In 1999, a survey conducted by NBSC (National Bureau of Statistics of China) revealed that households in rural China raised an average of 1.48 pigs (NBSC, 2000). One person of 8 in the world is a Chinese farmer. Another frequently quoted statistic is that about 80 percent of all Chinese pigs are produced in the backyards of farmers