Asia

With the increasingly valuable markets of China, Japan and South Korea, the Asia-Pacific region has become arguably the world’s leading hot spot of new economic activity, and one that has the greatest potential for sustained long-term growth. China has about 20 percent of the world's population, about 7 percent of its arable land and a huge proportion of its economic growth.

China has the world's fourth largest economy, and is also the third largest trading country. China is responsible for five percent of the world's gross domestic product (GDP). The country's gross national product is the world's second-largest, using the purchasing-power parity measure. China has also surpassed the United States as the world's top investment destination. It is also the biggest consumer of four out of five top basic commodities.

Chinese pork consumption increased nearly 70 percent in the decade of the 1990s, and is currently expanding by more than one million tons per year. So far, China has been supplying virtually all of that pork domestically. China is fostering domestic pork production with import barriers, high consumer prices and investments in its own animals and facilities.Chinese pork imports this year will about match the EU's pork imports. They will total a pitiful 70,000 tons, less than 0.2 percent of China's annual consumption. However US pork exports to China are on track to break records.Also China’s beef production is anticipated to contract due to the combined effect of low profitability, limited government support and strong competition from pork and poultry meats.

In the absence of Thailand and China’s exports to Asian markets, Brazil will be the likely supplier to increase exports. Brazil is in the best position and is highly competitive in providing quality poultry cuts. In Taiwan and South Korea, the United States does not face competition from Brazil, where sanitary restrictions are in place on Brazilian product. Brazil and Argentina have positioned themselves in the Chinese markets as the leading suppliers taking market share for bone-in broiler meat from the United States.

World production for Broiler Exports is forecast slightly higher up 4 percent to 74 million tons. China and Brazil are forecast to have faster growth. Conversely, U.S. production is expected to decrease for the first time since 1973 due to relatively high levels of feed and energy costs. Production in China and Brazil are forecast up 8 and 5 percent, respectively. Chinese production has been accelerating since 2006 due mainly to a sharp decline in pork supplies. Brazil’s production is expected to grow with increased foreign demand.

Exports from Brazil and the United States, which account for nearly 80 percent of the world's broiler export total, are expected to follow different directions. Brazil is forecast to hit another record as exports continue to accelerate mainly to Hong Kong, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, the EU-27, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. Alternatively, U.S. exports are expected to decline due to a drop in Russian import demand. However, exports are still expected to be relatively strong to other markets including China.