"China’s Pork Industry:
Recent Trends and Implications for World Meat and Grains Trade"

China is by far the world’s largest producer and consumer of pork. Historically,
this well known fact has not had a large impact on the rest of the world, as China has, for the most part, maintained self-sufficiency in pork. However, since 2007 the situation has changed dramatically, leading to large impacts on the global pork market, as China for the first time began to import significant quantities of pork.  The imports became feasible as a result of favorable price spreads between the Chinese and outside pork markets, and were facilitated by China’s government attempt to build stocks and moderate the impacts of food inflation. High pork prices in China were attributed to a number of factors, including strong demand, disease outbreaks, a previous cyclical downturn in margins and, importantly, a fundamental shift from backyard production to commercial production systems as citizens migrate en masse from rural areas to the rapidly industrializing cities.
 

Building upon newly revised census-based data in China, this study will examine in detail the factors driving the major change in China’s pork industry, providing our best opinion of future direction. The detailed analysis will be developed “on the ground in China” and integrated through cogent desk research. Implications for global pork trade as well as corn and meal trade will be presented to study participants.
 

Please join Informa Economics, Inc. (Informa) and the National Grain and Oils
Information Center (NGOIC) in this comprehensive multi-client study that will
examine the entire Chinese pork complex and reach conclusions that will be critical to long-term strategic positioning for your firm.