China's livestock feed output may double

Beijing: China, the world's biggest meat producer, may double its output of industrial animal feed in about 10 years to supply its fast expanding livestock production, an executive at Cofco Ltd said.

Output will be more than 250 million metric tonnes by 2020, growing from 148 million tonnes last year, on "inelastic demand growth" for meat, dairy and poultry, Liu Xiaoyu, general manager of Cofco's feed division, said in slides to be presented at a conference organised by Shanghai JC Intelligence Co in Tianjin yesterday.

Feed is made mainly from corn, soybeans and other oilseeds.

"The rapid growth in feed output has been helped by reform in China's livestock sector, with more advanced large-scale livestock operations replacing the traditional family-based raising, which often used food waste as feed", Xiaoyu said. The government also provided assistance to spur the sector's growth, the slides said.

China's industrial feed production grew from 2 million tonnes in 1980 to 148 million tonnes in 2009, an annualised rate of 16 per cent, Liu said. The rate of growth was 7.98 per cent in 2000-2009, he said.

Cofco is China's biggest grain trader.