April 12, 2010
China's Q1 animal feed production seen to take an upturn
Despite frequent outbreaks of pig diseases, China's production of animal feed in the first quarter is expected to grow 5.6% from a year earlier to 30.32 million tonnes.
The output in Q1, a time of seasonally-low demand, fell 24% from the last quarter of 2009, said the ministry of agriculture in a report posted on its website.
Better living standards coupled with fast urbanisation and population growth will continue to increase meat consumption, supporting feed production, it said. The ministry expected output for the whole year to grow 6% from last year. China's animal feed output was 140 million tonnes in 2009, up 2.4% from 2008.
For the whole year's performance, production is likely to pick up gradually in the second quarter and grow by a big margin in the third quarter before growth slows in the fourth quarter this year, it said.