The trough of China's broiler industry lasted for 3 years and the Husi incident was hit again.

In the aftermath of the Husi incident, it is difficult to recover the vitality of broiler exports.

Due to the emergence of some irregular factors, the trough of the Chinese broiler industry lasted for 3 years. Now, the deeply damaged industry has just improved, but affected by the Husi incident, most chicken exporters have been blocked from doing business overseas and are still difficult to repair.

Sun Ruili, a new financial reporter

Orders plummeted

According to a normal year, the new office building of Qingdao Jiulian Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Qingdao Jiulian Group" or "Jiulian") should be frequently seen by Japanese partners at the moment, and the international sales department of the country's largest broiler deli products exporter should also be busy.

However, the real situation is quite the opposite. the fact is that most Japanese businessmen with many years of cooperation have gone to Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries to find new partners, and the door of the International sales Department on the fifth floor of the Nine Union Office Building is closed. All this shows that the export orders of this company, which is famous for chicken exports, are not very satisfactory this year. The root of this fact starts with the "Husi incident" that occurred in China half a year ago.

According to a number of industry insiders, Jiulian Group has always been a leader in Shandong meat enterprises, and it is also a large-scale chicken meat enterprise integrating poultry breeding, broiler breeding, slaughtering and refrigeration, cooked food processing, and domestic and foreign trade.

For a long time, the export business of Jiulian Group accounts for a large proportion. On the list of the top 100 Chinese agricultural products exporters published by the Customs Information Network in 2013, Jiulian Group ranked fifth and ranked first among poultry exporters.

In 2010, the total export of Jiulian chicken cooked food products accounted for 25% of the total domestic exports, exceeding the total ranking of 2-5 places in the same industry.

"Nine Alliance's partners are mainly Japanese enterprises. in addition, they are also exported to more than a dozen countries and regions, including the European Union, Russia, the Middle East, the United States, South Africa and Chile. Jiulian is also a supplier to foreign fast food enterprises such as KFC and McDonald's. " Wang Zhenqian, marketing director of Jiulian Group, told the new financial reporter.

It was the "Husi incident" that took place last year that cast a shadow over the scenery of Nine Union in the industry. In July 2014, the media exposed that KFC and McDonald's supplier Shanghai Husi Foods were using expired chicken. All of a sudden, the focus of the public focused on the chicken meat enterprises, especially the suppliers of KFC and McDonald's.

In addition to the doubts of consumers, export companies such as Jiulian have also been abandoned by their partners from Japan.

On the fifth day of the incident, Casaval, president and CEO of McDonald's Japan Holdings, said that customers were increasingly worried about McDonald's chicken imports from China under the influence of relevant reports from Shanghai Husi Food Co., Ltd. At the same time, McDonald's Japan Holdings also announced that it has decided to stop selling all Chinese-made chicken products and switch to Thai chicken products.

Japan ranked first in terms of value among countries and regions that imported chicken and products from China from January to March 2014, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

"this incident has a great impact on the industry as a whole. The chicken market should have rebounded in 2014 after a downturn in 2012 and 2013, but this incident prolonged the downturn in the industry, causing many companies to suffer greater losses and doing a lot of harm to the industry." Xiao Baohua, an observer of the poultry industry, told the New Financial reporter.

Another relevant person in charge of Jiulian Group, Wang Dong (a pseudonym), also told the new financial reporter that the Husi incident had the greatest impact on export-oriented enterprises. After the Husi incident, Chinese chicken sales in Japanese catering channels did not change significantly, but sales in Shang Chao channels declined seriously.

"We can repeatedly deal with Japanese dealers to prove that our products are safe, which is not difficult. But the hard part is that Japanese consumers, you can't prove your product to them, because they are starting to resist it from the bottom of their heart. " Wang Dong said.

According to data provided by Wang Dong, China exports about 200000 tons of cooked chicken products a year, but after the Husi incident, export orders fell by about 40 per cent.

"can you not be anxious?" In his office, speaking of the recent decline in overseas orders, Wang Dong smiled and then said worriedly: "it is not terrible to decline now, but whether there will be orders in the future."

A series of changes

Affected by the superposition of the market and other factors, especially the sudden interference of external factors, many chicken enterprises have seriously unbalanced investment and return in the past three years, or even huge losses.

Before the Husi incident, China's broiler industry, which has entered a trough in the industry, suffered two disasters, namely, the "quick chicken incident" in 2012 and the "bird flu incident" in 2013.

In November 2012, it was reported that a chicken raised by KFC and McDonald's supplier Shanxi Suhai Group took only 45 days from hatching to serving on the table. With the attention and questioning of public opinion, this kind of chicken is gradually classified as a "quick chicken" fed with feed and medicine.

"Su Hai was originally an enterprise that could sell tens of billions of dollars a year, but after this incident, the enterprise has completely changed." An industry insider told the new financial reporter.

Although many industry experts and scholars later explained the "quick chicken", saying that 45 days is now the normal growth cycle of white-feathered chickens, consumers' doubts about the whole industry have not been lifted.