BEEF AND CATTLE INDUSTRY IN CHINA

Production Systems 

Traditionally, beef production was concentrated in the pastoral areas of northern and north western China. Cattle are still raised in these areas but output has not expanded nearly as rapidly as in the agricultural areas.
Nowadays, the focus of beef production has shifted to the agricultural areas where households raising one, two or three head produce most of the beef. These households raise their cattle in sheds with “a cut and carry” feeding system  with some tethering and grazing by the roadside in summer.  
Feedlots account for less than 5% of the turnoff of over 30 million head of cattle per year. Most feedlots are small-scale specialised household operations but there are many with around 60 to 100 head  and a few larger,  more modern feedlots with through-put  capacities in excess of 2,000 head per annum. Feedlots concentrate on fattening “improved” cattle produced by AI that are usually first or second crosses between the best local breed cows and imported bulls.
To enable double and triple cropping in agricultural areas, large quantities of crop residues must be removed from the fields. The traditional method of achieving this is to burn it. However, the air the pollution problem has forced authorities to consider other ways of utilising the straw. As a result, since early 1990s, farmers have been encouraged to harvest and store the straw and treat it in pits with urea solution (ammoniation) to make a kind of silage. This “straw for ruminants” program is aimed  at encouraging farmers to  treat and feed more crop residues to more cattle.
In south-western China and in southern China, there are large areas of hilly and mountainous pastures that are being used to raise cattle. In southern China, buffalo are used as both work and beef animals.

Types of Cattle and Herd Improvement
 
China has a large number of different breeds of cattle some of which are reasonably suitable for beef production. However, the Chinese cattle breeds have been developed for hundreds of years primarily for draught purposes and they are still used in the fields.
Since the late 1980s, there has been a major drive to up-grade the local breeds for beef production by establishing AI centers called cattle improvement stations. These stations are usually stocked with imported Simmental, Charolais and Limousine bulls from which semen is collected for use on local cows. Some cattle improvement stations have small herds of imported cows from which they are breeding the next generation of AI bulls

Live Cattle Marketing

In recent years, there has been increasing specialisation (both by region and by type of producer) in the Chinese cattle-raising industry. Consequently, live cattle markets have sprung up all over the country. While many are small and  open for business only occasionally, there are also some very large markets that operate most days of the week and through which pass large numbers of cattle. Cattle purchased at these markets are often transported long distances by truck either to be  slaughtered near the large cities for wet markets or to be fattened in distant feedlots.

Slaughtering and Distribution

Over 90% of the cattle slaughtered in China are killed by householders under very small-scale and primitive conditions. In the Central Plain and in the northern grain-growing areas of China generally, most “backyard” slaughtering establishments are housed in sheds but in the remote pastoral areas and in southern China many are simple open-air facilities.
However, there are many especially constructed abattoirs owned by provincial or county food companies. Many of these works were built in the late 1980s or early 1990s in response to fiscal reforms and other events such as the emergence of a beef export trade with the former USSR. However, these high-cost abattoirs can not compete with the much cheaper household slaughtering operations for the domestic mass market.
A limited number of the better designed and managed plants with access to suitable cattle are still operating but these operations can only make a profit if they can sell a significant proportion of their output in the small but growing domestic premium beef market. Two  types of premium market are emerging. The first is for better quality chilled or frozen beef for the HRI trade. The second is for the pre-packaged processed meats that are becoming increasingly popular in the supermarkets.
There are two distribution channels for beef slaughter by backyard operators. The meat is either transported to wet markets and sold within hours of being killed or it is cooked in household cooking facilities that are usually extremely primitive and unhygienic. The cooked beef has a much longer shelf life than the wet meat and it is, therefore, distributed much more widely.
 

Retailing  

The mass market for beef and beef offal in China is still essentially being serviced by either traditional wet markets or modern wet markets. Even in the big cities, little beef is sold through supermarkets as yet but supermarkets are rapidly expanding their trade in fresh produce (including meats) in competition with the traditional produce markets. There is a small premium market for certain cuts of better quality beef in the larger cities but this market is limited to the 4- and 5-star hotel, restaurant and institutional (HRI) trade in the food service sector.
The wet markets for meat are located within general market places where a wide variety of fresh agricultural produce is offered to the public by many small stall operators. The meat stalls in these markets are often specialised with each stall selling only one  type of meat. Beef stalls often sell both wet beef and bovine offal (i.e., freshly slaughtered meat and offal) and cooked beef and offal.
In the major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, supermarkets are becoming common. In these stores, frozen beef is offered for sale in much the same way as in Western supermarkets. In Beijing,
customers can now purchase frozen beef that carries the government health inspection service to stamp of the packer and the Beijing City guarantee that the meat has been packed under hygienic conditions. Cooked beef is also sold through supermarkets from delicatessen counters.
Supermarkets are also rapidly becoming established in provincial cities The vacuum packed pre-cooked beef products on offer in this store are becoming increasingly popular throughout China as Chinese consumers seek hygienic and convenient meat products.
A traditional general produce market with many meat stalls is located less than a kilometre from the above mentioned modern supermarket in Zhengzhou. In this market, people of the Hui Nationality (who are of the Muslim faith and who have traditionally dominated the slaughtering and marketing of beef and beef offal in China) operate typical traditional wet beef stalls at which customers handle and smell the meat before making their purchases. There are also stalls in this market selling cooked beef and beef offal.
Traditional wet market stalls operate both as retailers to households and as small wholesalers to numerous small restaurateurs and other food service operators. In the bigger cities there are also larger wet meat markets that are called “wholesale markets” because they service the needs of the larger institutions and the larger restaurants and caterers. These wholesale markets also sell a lot of their produce to households and are really mixed wholesale/retail markets in which there are significant price discounts for the buyers of larger quantities (i.e., for wholesale trades). There is usually a great variety of edible bovine offal available in these wholesale markets. Despite the recent growth in supermarkets in the big cities, perhaps as much as 95% of all beef reaching final consumers in China still passes through traditional wet markets (both wholesale and retail).

Leather  

China has a large leather industry manufacturing shoes, handbags and other fashion accessories, as well as garments and upholstery coverings etc. both for the domestic market and for export. Many millions of hides and skins are imported and there is an enormous domestic production of raw shins and hides.  
 
Retrieved by Leopoldo Costa (Feb.2003) in http://www.nrsm.uq.edu.au/agecon/pub/research/chinap/. Apparently is no longer available. Adapted and illustrated to be posted.