Live broiler trading accounted for 14% of broiler consumption in China in 2008. To prevent bird flu, the Ministry of Agriculture plans to close down all live poultry markets in the urban areas this year. BOABC considers that the barriers to the closedown of live poultry markets have been basically removed.
Despite the lack of a compulsory policy requiring poultry slaughter at designated slaughterhouses, many provinces have already practiced concentrated slaughter. Hebei began poultry slaughter at designated slaughterhouses in 2008 and Shanxi is to adopt the policy in 2009. Henan and Gansu plan to follow suit in 2010.
Broiler slaughterhouses each capable of more than 20 million birds/year numbered sixty in China in 2008 and their combined capacity was about 3 billion birds/year, accounting for 45% of broiler production. Large slaughterhouses’ total capacity is predicted to reach 4 billion birds/year in 2009, enough to meet 90% of the demand in urban areas. Poultry consumption in urban areas accounted for 70% of the nation’s total in 2008.
Consumers in southern provinces traditionally prefer buying live broilers, but have gradually changed their mind in face of frequent cases of human infection of bird flu. The closedown of live poultry markets is anticipated to advance faster in the north than in the south.
