Further growth for Japan's broiler meat production in 2018
In 2017, the country's total chicken slaughter was 772,480 birds yielding 1.661 million mt of meat, up 2% from 2016.
According to USDA, 93% of chicken meat production came from broilers, while 6% came from spent hens and 1% from others such as local breeds.
The total number of broiler producers was 2,270 in February 1, 2018, down 1.7% from 2017, according to data released by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF).
USDA explained that Japan saw a growth in broiler meat production despite an overall decline in the number of operations. The decline was mainly in the smaller producers' category who's flocks were subsumed by mid to large sized operations. The large producer with 200,000 birds or more have increased by 2%. Meanwhile the number of operations with less than 200,000 birds dropped 5%.
The Japanese broiler industry has went through a period of consolidation, as explained by USDA. Producers were able to introduce higher yield breeds which pushed the average broiler weights up 5.5% in the last decade, reaching 3.0 kg in 2017.
FAS/Tokyo expects these trends to hold in 2018 and estimated that the overall chicken meat production to reach 1.695 million mt in 2018, increasing by 2% compared to 2017.
Japanese chicken meat imports on the rise
Japan imported 433,967 mt of chicken meat in the first five months of this year, up 11% compared to the similar period from 2017.
In 2017, the country's total chicken meat imports reached 1.056 million mt of which 54% was raw meat and 46% was processed chicken products.
Thailand and Brazil are Japan's main chicken meat suppliers and accounted for 80% of the country's total chicken imports in 2017. Most of the remaining volumes in that year was covered by the imports of processed chicken products from China.
USDA says that because of a high demand the domestic production is unable to match it and Japanese processors are increasingly turning to imported chicken for further processing.
FAS/Tokyo expects this trend to be maintained and forecasted that the Japanese chicken imports will grow to 1.080 million mt in 2018, up 2% from 2017.
USDA's outlook for the Japanese chicken meat market in 2019
USDA expects the chicken meat production in Japan to grow steadily and the country to further consolidate its industry.
FAS/Tokyo projects overall production to grow 2% to 1.730 million mt in the following year. Meanwhile, it also expects consumption to reach 2.835 million mt, up 2.5% from 2018.
Furthermore, it is expected that chicken meat imports will continue to rise as the demand will also grow, with an increase of nearly 3% to 1.110 million mt with ending stocks remaining stable at 222,000 mt.
Photo Source: Pixnio
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