EGG PRODUCTION IN CHINA: CURRENT STATUS AND OUTLOOK

Highlights

• China is now the largest egg production country worldwide

• Egg production in China is characterized by diversity in several aspects

• China is now capable of breeding new varieties, with more than 50% of the market share

• Policies have been implemented to ensure sustainable development of egg production

• Integrating crop-chicken-vegetable production system is established

Abstract

Eggs are one of the most nutritious and affordable animal products worldwide. From 1985, egg production in China has retained the leading place in the world. A total of 33 Mt of eggs were produced in 2019 representing ˃ 40% of the world total production. Egg production in China is characterized by diversity in several aspects, including layer breeds, products and production systems. New breeds and synthetic lines are developed to improve the genetic potentials of egg production and feed efficiency of layers. In the past, layer farms were run mostly by small households with 100 to 1000 layers per farm. Over the past decades, egg production in China has developed toward standardization and expansion of production systems, and many of these modern intensive farms raise millions of layers. Although the Chinese egg products maintain strong competitiveness over other animal products and imported egg products, the egg industry will grow at a slower pace compared to the past. Chinese consumers are more concerned about the quality and safety of eggs and egg products, as well as the environmental issues related to animal production, which presents challenges for the Chinese egg industry.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

poultry farms / China / diversity / egg production / trends

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Acknowledgements

The survey reported in this paper was supported in part by the China Agricultural Research System on Layers (CARS-40). The author would like to thank the members of CARS-40 for their contribution and helpful discussion, and Dr. Congjiao Sun, Ms. Xiqiong Wang and Ms. Yuhui Qin (College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University) for their help in preparing this manuscript.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Ning Yang declare that he has no conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose.

This article is a news & views and does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by the author.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s) 2020. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)