The poultry industry is recovering, and market conditions are gradually improving

China's poultry industry has three prominent advantages: a large industrial base, high concentration, and obvious export advantages. There are more than 40 million farms (households) nationwide, more than 70 million people employed in the sector, and the output value of poultry raising is 690 billion yuan, accounting for 23% of the total output value of the livestock industry. Broiler farming is mainly concentrated in 6 provinces - Shandong, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Guangxi, Liaoning and Henan - whose poultry meat output accounts for 52.9% of the national total; laying hen farming is mainly concentrated in 5 provinces - Shandong, Henan, Hebei, Liaoning and Jiangsu - whose egg output accounts for 56.8% of the national total, and the export volume of poultry products accounts for 35.8% of all livestock products.

In early 2014, human cases of H7N9 influenza infection appeared again, and the losses to the poultry industry, which had not yet recovered from the severe impact of the 2013 outbreak, were further aggravated. In order to safeguard the interests of the poultry industry, the Poultry Industry Branch of the China Animal Agriculture Association actively responded to human infection with the H7N9 virus and organized poultry enterprises to take part in self-rescue. The association made full use of its own advantages to clear the name of “H7N9 avian influenza”. The association sent staff to visit and investigate the production, operations and losses of poultry enterprises, conveyed the demands of poultry enterprises in a timely manner, and reduced the harm caused by the disease to the poultry industry. With the high attention of society as a whole, the state issued a subsidy policy for grandparent breeder chickens, and Guangdong, Guangxi, Zhejiang and other places also issued policies such as interest subsidies on working capital loans for enterprises and subsidies for the processing and stockpiling of live poultry, and stepped up publicity and guidance to boost consumer confidence in the poultry product market.

Relevant data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture show that in 2014 poultry product prices were all higher than the level of the same period last year, and driven by recovering consumption and holiday consumption, poultry product prices showed a restorative rise. Recently, however, human cases of H7N9 influenza infection have appeared successively in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong, increasing the uncertain factors for the stable development of the poultry industry, and the whole industry has pooled its strength to fight H7N9 influenza.