Meat consumption reaches a level every 10 years, with a shortfall of 10 million tons in 2020.

Li Shuilong, executive director of the China Meat Association, clearly pointed out that it is estimated that by 2020, the gap between supply and demand of about 10 million tons of annual meat production in China will have to be made up by imports.

At the China-Spain Meat Enterprises Fair, Li Shuilong, executive director of the China Meat Association, specifically pointed out that by 2020, China's total meat output will have a gap between supply and demand of 8 million-10 million tons, which will have to be made up by imports. Through a set of figures, Li Shuilong summarized the development context and international status of China's meat industry, expounded the impact of China's huge population base on per capita meat ownership, and predicted the supply and demand situation of China's meat market and the development trend of meat import in the next five years.

The largest country in meat production and consumption for more than 20 years

Li Shuilong pointed out that since the early 1990s, China has been the largest country in meat production and consumption in the world. In 2014, China's total meat output reached 87.07 million tons, accounting for 28.3% of the world's total meat output of 307 million tons. Of these, pork output is 56.71 million tons, accounting for about 48.5 percent of the world's pork production of 116 million tons; beef production is 6.89 million tons, accounting for about 10 percent of the world beef production of 68 million tons; mutton production is 4.28 million tons, accounting for about 30 percent of the world mutton production of 14 million tons; poultry production is 17.51 million tons, accounting for about 16.2 percent of the world poultry production of 107 million tons.

In terms of total output, China ranks first in terms of pork and mutton production in the world, second in poultry production (20.23 million tons in the United States), and third in beef production (10.99 million tons in the United States and 10.19 million tons in Brazil).

Li Shuilong said that China is also the most populous country in the world, with a total population of 1.368 billion in 2014, 28.9 times that of Spain's 47.4 million. Li Shui-long stressed that no matter how high the output is divided by the total population, per capita ownership becomes very small. At present, the annual per capita amount of meat in China is only 63.6 kg, including 41.5 kg of pork, 5.03 kg of beef, 3.12 kg of mutton and 12.8 kg of poultry. This is a far cry from Spain's annual per capita possession of 52.8 kg of pork, 16 kg of beef, 2 kg of mutton and 30.2 kg of poultry in 2014. Li Shuilong specifically pointed out that the gap between beef and poultry is even greater.

Leap a step every 10 years for 30 years

Li Shuilong analyzed and concluded that China's meat consumption in the past 30 years has taken a step forward every 10 years. From 1985 to 1995, annual per capita meat consumption increased from 16.6 kg to 33.5 kg, an increase of 17 kg in 10 years; from 1995 to 2005, annual per capita meat consumption increased from 33.5 kg to 59.2 kg, with an increase of 25.7 kg in 10 years; from 2005 to 2014, annual per capita meat consumption increased from 59.2 kg to 63.6 kg, an increase of 4.4 kg in nine years.

There will be a gap between supply and demand of about 10 million tons by 2020.

Li Shuilong clearly pointed out that in the next five years, the development potential of China's meat market is very great. The forecast shows that by 2020, China's total population will be about 1.45 billion, and if the annual per capita meat consumption reaches 69 kg, meat production should reach 100 million tons, an increase of 12.93 million tons over 2014, an increase of 14.8%. According to the recent research results, it is difficult to achieve this goal due to the constraints of resources and environmental factors in our country. Li Shuilong particularly stressed that by 2020, China's total meat output is expected to reach only 90 million-92 million tons, and there will be a gap between supply and demand of 8 million-10 million tons, which will have to be made up by imports, which also means that there is great potential for trade cooperation with China's meat industry.