Structure of Pork Consumption and Its Development Trend in China

By CnAgri2012-07-18 15:30:11 Print

In the constant growth of China’s pork consumption, both the consumption structure and ways of consumption changed remarkably. These changes indicated the trend of future pork consumption, which are mainly reflected in the following aspects:

1. The growth of per capita pork consumption at home is much lower than the growth of industrial consumption or outdoor consumption. From 1992 to 2010, the annual average growth of gross pork consumption in China has been around 4.80%. The growth of industrial consumption at the annual rate of 11.67% has been the fastest; the growth of outdoor consumption has been 8.71%, and the growth of household consumption, barely 3.06%, which is the slowest.

2. The proportion of fresh pork consumption continued to decline, whereas the proportion of meat products consumption has been on the rise. From 1992 to 2010, the proportion of fresh pork consumption fell from 90.66% to 81.96%; whereas the proportion of consumption of meat products rose from 9.34% to 18.04%; the proportion of consumption of meat products will reach 23% by 2015.

In terms of the urban and rural structure of pork consumption, although the average consumption volume of per urban household is beginning to slow down, the consumption of meat products and outdoor consumption has grown fast, hence the proportion of pork consumption in urban areas continued to grow from 43% in 1992 to 64% in 2010, and this proportion may rise to over 70% in 2015.

Currently the state proposes that the increase of residents’ income shall be faster and the income gap shall be narrowed, and the low-income residents shall enjoy a favorable state in the distribution. In this way, the low-income residents are hoperfully to enjoy a faster income increase, which makes it possible for them to realize their potential need of meat. Although the average consumption volume of per urban household is beginning to slow down, the total meat consumption of urban household will continue to rise along with the urbanization progress.  In the rural area, the pork consumption per household increases fast, yet the sum total of pork consumption in rural areas will keep in low increase rate as the urbanization causes the sharp fall of rural population. 

The trend is falling of per capita consumption but rising of gross consumption of urban residents, and constant growth of per capita consumption and gross consumption of rural residents; continual growth of household consumption but decline of proportion in the total; growth of both volume and proportion of industrial and outdoor consumption; and pork consumption shall be mainly by urban residents in terms of the urban and rural consumption structure.

The futrue trend of China’s pork consumption is that the pork consumption quantity per family shall keep rising while the pproportion of pork shall decline; the quantity and proportion of industrial and outdoor pork consumption shall both keep on increasing. In terms of the urban and rural structure, the future pork consumption shall mainly be urban consumption.  The increase of pork consumption per urban household shall slow down while the total consumption shall increase.The pork consumption per rural household and the total consumption shall both keep on rising.