Dim Sums: Agricultural Markets in China

According to a posting on the China veterinary association site , the Chia Tai Company, known as Zhengda in China, is planning to de-emphasize its poultry business to emphasize its food processing and feed operations. The company plans to reduce the share of its revenue derived from chickens and ducks from 47% to 33%. The company plans to increase the food processing share of sales from 18% to 30-33%. The feed share of sales will be maintained at the current 35% share. The measure is motivated by fears of market risks due to avian flu. Zhengda is one of the biggest players in the meat and livestock businesses in China. The 2004 outbreak of avian influenza had a major effect on Zhengda. It plans to keep its poultry farm in Thailand and purchase additional poultry from outside the company. Zhengda has been operating in China for about 30 years and has over 20 poultry-raising enterprises that have capacity to raise about 100 million chicks annually. The company typically raises chicks on ...

Is avian influenza spreading in China? Cases in Hong Kong and Shenzhen led some to assert that the disease is spreading in China. I checked China's Animal Husbandry and Veterinary net web site--surely this is the place to find out--but the latest article is from two weeks ago (Jan. 19), about a network of labs set up in universities to check on avian flu. The article says the avian influenza situation is grim in neighboring countries. As for China, it says in recent years AI has been endemic only in some northern provinces, but AI was detected in an area of Jiangsu Province on December 15, suggesting that it may have spread over a broader area. In January, the article reports, two people in Beijing and Shanxi contracted AI. The victim in Jiangsu was a farmer in Hai'an county . The H5N1 strain was detected in samples, but it was determined to be different from the virus found in southern China (Hong Kong and Shenzhen). Experts concluded it probably was spread by migratory fowl. ...