I have had the opportunity to spend the months of March 2002 and March 2003 in China as a member of the “Purdue University: Applied Nutrition, Technology, Disease Diagnosis, Control and Treatment, and Herd Health Management for High Performance Swine Production” schools. The schools have been co-sponsored by Purdue University and Winrock International. The Winrock organization was formed in 1984 by Winthrope Rockefeller as a stand-alone institute for agricultural development from the Rockefeller Foundation. China has been a country that has received considerable support from the institute and has received continual funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for specific projects. For the past three years, a project specific to swine has been a co-funded activity.
During the nearly two months interfacing with the approximate 1,600 students attending the various schools, I wish to comment on personal impressions and observations.
The attending students have come from a variety of swine related backgrounds. Over two-thirds were swine producers, with the remaining one-third representing feed or ingredient, animal health suppliers, and several university animal or veterinary scientists. Schools have been held in the cities of Beijing, Chengdu, Nanning, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Nanchang, Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Zhenghou. Each consisted of an intensive two-day agenda. A lasting impression will always be a classroom of well-dressed, primarily young men and women with expressions of appreciation and a thirst for learning. The attentiveness and the questions asked were very impressive. When one considers the distance and difficulty that many of the students experienced in their travels to attend the meetings, one has a much greater appreciation of their dedication to learn and improve.
World’s Largest Animal Agriculture
The population of China and most of its cities is reported within a range. The current most frequent cited population for the country is 1.4 billion. In fact, statistics for nearly everything are not always clear or reliable. But even without exacting data, the agricultural economy of China is one of the world’s largest and certainly has become an important influence on global agricultural trade. Approximately 70 percent of its population is involved in agriculture. The trend for the young to move to the larger cities is very evident. The variance from city to city is also very evident both in the swine industry as well as the demography of the swine producers and operations. China has made remarkable progress in moving away from a planned economy. A little over 20 years ago all agricultural production in China was carried out according to a bureaucratic decree. Today, the government procures only a very small percentage of agricultural commodities and most farmers make their own decisions about what to produce.
China is among the world’s largest producers as well as consumers of animal proteins. It ranks number one in pork and number two in poultry meat production in the world. There are over 550 million pigs produced in China annually, nearly five times that produced in the United States. The operations come in many forms and vary considerably by geography. The majority of the numbers are still raised by the smaller producers but trends to larger, more specialized swine farms are very evident. Each of the producer schools had at least one-third to one-half of producers with over 500 sows and finishing over 10,000 pigs. The largest farm I had the opportunity to visit was a 24,000 sow, farrow-to-finish facility in which the buildings were arranged in a multistory motel-like building model. The breeding sows were on the second floor, farrowing and nursery on the third floor, and growing-finishing on floors four, five, and six. This facility used 660 employees and also produced 1.8 million food turtles on the first floor with special emphasis that there was no swine manure contamination to the turtles.
Still, 80 percent of China’s pork production occurs on small farms with few sows and only five percent are produced in the large-scale, commercial production systems. As the farm population becomes older and the urban movement becomes even more intense, the trend to fewer and larger will increase. Modern supermarkets are common within the major cities but “wet markets” are the common market type in rural areas and villages. The average Chinese menu contains little pork muscle meat and even variety meats. A very significant quantity of all meats are consumed local to its production and purchased from fresh wet markets where products hang from hooks and dissected into the quantity and type of tissue that will be consumed that day.
Swine facilities are labor intensive. As an example, a 1,500-sow facility employed 60 farm workers and attended their farrowing and nursery rooms on a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week schedule. In comparison, a similar production unit in the United States would probably employ six managers and caretakers.
Most of the larger farms have improved their genetics with influences from the U.S. breeding and artificial breeding firms. This influence is not always evident when served Chinese entrées as the population generally appreciates fat pork more than western food preferences, although the health and animal fat controversy is becoming more of a concern among the younger population. In fact, domestic lard is becoming more available as a feeding fat due to the trend of using plant oil as cooking oils in the more progressive intercities.
Pork accounts for over half of the entire animal protein consumed by China’s residents, though consumption is influenced greatly by differences in urban and rural meat consumption. Poultry meat and eggs contribute 27 percent of consumer animal protein intake. Poultry meat’s share of consumption has tripled in the last 15 years at the expense of pork and seafood. The most rapid growth of all animal protein products in China is aquaculture, making it the world’s largest producer. Water shortages, environmental problems, and fish diseases pose future constraints on the continued rapid expansion. Only moderate production growth is expected in the next decade due to these constraints.
Beef, mutton, and milk account for only a very small share of China’s total animal protein consumption but are increasing very slowly. Milk production in China is very limited. It has been projected that if the daily consumption of milk would include eight ounces for every one of its residents it would consume the total United States’ annual milk production every 23 days. The soybean industry has made great strides in promoting soymilk as a substitution for the real animal derived product. In fact, China’s huge appetite for soybeans for both edible foods and to feed its emerging animal protein needs (pork, poultry, and aquaculture) continues to grow.
Growing Feed Industry
Soybean meal is the protein staple for most feed formulations. A very significant number of food entrées contain supplemental soy ingredients even though they are meat based. The Chinese taste for tofu and other specialty recipes made from grain and soy prepared with Sichuan spices, braised, fried, in curd, or noodle form is very evident.
As China’s livestock and feed sectors prepare for a growing consumer demand, the soy industry, both domestic and the importing countries, are quite prominent in their activities. Soybean production in China is growing. However, it is not expanding as rapidly as the demand. The United States, Brazil, and China’s entry into the World Trade Organization has encouraged other countries to pursue what is envisioned as a tremendous agriculture market opportunity. The U.S. soybean industry has over 20 animal nutritionists working in China. They have invested heavily in providing infrastructures in China’s ports. It has been estimated by the U.S. Economic Research Service that soybean imports by China will double during this decade.
There is, however, tremendous opportunity for animal by-products as well. The traditional Chinese feed industry is very well accustomed to the use of by-product ingredients. The major feed type produced commercially still remains to be complete feeds. The growth of concentrates and premixes is, however, very evident. On the basis of livestock and poultry production swine, layer and broiler consume well over 50 percent of the total feed compounded. New start-up feed companies were very visible at all of the swine schools. China’s feed industry, which was virtually non-existent 20 to 25 years ago, has grown to be one of the world’s largest. As examples of growth, the Hope Feed Group that consists of several entities across China was reported to provide feed to approximately 20 percent of all the hogs produced. This would equate to feeding nearly all the hogs produced annually in the United States. A start-up company, The Horizon Group in Zhengzhou, developed in 1999, reported annual tonnage of 300,000 tons. A Kingcard Feed Premix Company in Quanzhou reported similar dramatic feed tonnage increases. The Department of State Farms within the Ministry of Agriculture still operates some government mills to supply state farms and aquaculture farms. The trend, however, is to privately or cooperative-owned feed mills.
Quality expectations for feed ingredients in China are of high priority. Animal by-product ingredients are no exception but their placement in a category of greater concern for quality as compared to other ingredient classes does not appear to be as prevalent as in other locations such as the United States. It was refreshing not to be questioned on Salmonella or bovine spongiform encephalopathy at any of the schools. Perhaps sharing data that illustrates oil seed meals, with an incidence of 18 percent Salmonella but used at formulation levels of 24.9 percent as compared to the 20.5 percent Salmonella incidence as reported for meat and bone meal (MBM) and used at three to five percent of total ration, actually have a risk factor several times that for animal proteins was very convincing and negated the need for further questions. The concern for ingredient cross contamination, such as the observation of feathers in MBM, was expressed several times. Questions were also frequent concerning the oxidation of MBM and the anti-oxidant usage for its preservation.
The issue of ovine material presence was not evident as an end user concern as evidenced by the questions and discussions. The issue, however, is of a much higher priority to the port authorities in China. Shipments of MBM have been quarantined in the port of Shanghai after testing positive for ovine material by a Chinese laboratory. China has declared to be a scrapie-free country. Assay procedures and the collaborative studies have not been completed to accept any one detection procedure with confidence. U.S. regulatory agencies have not, at the time of this writing, adopted an official analytical procedure and laboratory tolerance levels for any species tissue detection assay. Thus, the feed industry and animal producers in China very openly want animal by-product ingredients while precipitous trade issues complicate their utilization. It is for certain that rendered animal by-product ingredients are not readily available from domestically produced livestock and poultry. The rendering industry in China is virtually non-existent.
Summary
Though there are challenges in coping with trade nuances, infrastructure limitations, cultural traditions, and the recognition of the sensitivity for the Chinese government to make decisions based on the employment protection and providing food to its massive population, export opportunities abound. China’s economic growth is well recognized and reported to have averaged an eight percent increase in each of the past five years. But still, it must feed nearly 13 people for each hectare of arable land. In comparison, Europe must feed 4.1 people and the United States only 1.4 people. As China expands its economy, even at the now modest one percent annual growth in population, the importation of food and its production components will become increasingly more important. Japan, as an example, now must import more than 80 percent of its food. China, in all likelihood, will follow a similar pattern.
There are some very vivid impressions that are lasting in my mind as well as documented in innumerable keepsake photographs. There are many contrasts, such as the “town boar” being lead from home to home with a motorbike to breed the local sows, to the ultra modern boar studs for supplying semen for artificial breeding. The wet markets offering both plant and animal origin food without refrigeration contrasted to the ultra modern supermarkets. Both markets, however, display many tissues and organs for food preparation not common to U.S. food customs. There are great differences in the Chinese swine breeds ranging from the Meishan, noted for its prolificacy to the more modern muscular crossbreeds. A visit to a Meishan breeding farm soon discovered the pride for their having a single litter comprising of 32 piglets.
There is tremendous geographic and demographic variation as one travels to various provinces. The rolling fields of rows of corn and soybeans as far as the eye can see in Heilong Jang Province, to the sea of the bright yellow blooming canola in Sichuan, to the water buffalo tended rice paddies in Nannang portrays the regional differences. The walking tours down the friendly alleys that are so narrow that two bicycles must slow to meet, while the business is transacted from nearly every front step. Entrepreneurs display their wares on door steps, spread on blankets, card tables, carts, wagons, storefronts resembling single car garages each with different specialty items that extend for blocks on end, contrasted very distinctly from the multistory very modern department stores. The contrast can be noted within the proximity of only a few blocks.
The businesses within villages are comprised of an estimated one-third restaurants and another one-third food stores. Steamed rolls and noodles replace the western bread and are as varied as the restaurants and food stands. Each meal expands one’s imagination for the origin of the animal species and the “delicacies” contained in Chinese recipes. In most occasions it is best not to make inquiries.
But the most vivid memories are the friendly, hospitable, appreciative manner in which the “Purdue team” was treated. Standing ovations as speakers enter the room for the morning session are reserved generally for the highest dignitaries in the United States but was a common occurrence at each of our meetings. Even more of a surprise was the ovation given following my presentations. Each student was presented with a diploma at the conclusion of the two-day schools. The opportunity to shake hands with each student provided callused evidence of a hard working, dedicated, sincere group of people that appreciated our efforts in being better swine managers and producers. They are a group of people that hopefully have a greater appreciation for the benefits that animal by-product ingredients can provide to their swine operations.
Hopefully they have a better appreciation of the research organization that provides research and technical information to the industry. I certainly have a greater appreciation of the opportunities that lie beneath the China sky.
Tech Topics - June 2003 Render