For many people, chicken is a common food. But did you know that the raw materials of fried tenders need to be imported into China?
对许多人来说，鸡肉是一种常见的食物。但是你知道炸鸡块的原料需要进口吗?
Many poultry products such as fried chicken and chicken breasts come from white-feather broiler chicken. However, due to lacking the technological resources needed to produce the white-feather broiler breed domestically, China has been importing chicks from other countries such as the US since 2004.
炸鸡、鸡胸肉等许多禽肉品均来自于白羽肉鸡。然而，由于国内缺乏培育白羽肉鸡所需的技术资源，从2004年以来，中国一直从美国等其他国家进口鸡苗。
As a large consumer of poultry, China’s demand for chicken imports is huge. According to the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), in 2020, the country consumed 18.6 million tons of chicken, with the white-feather broiler chicken accounting for 52.4 percent.
作为家禽消费大国，中国对进口鸡肉的需求巨大。根据中国农业科学院(CAAS)的数据显示，2020年，中国鸡肉总产量超过1860万吨，其中白羽肉鸡占52.4%。
But the situation won’t stay this way for much longer. On Dec 3, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs released three new approved varieties of white-feather broiler breeds. They are Guangming 2, Shengze 901 and Wode 188. Domestically bred broiler varieties are expected to appear on the Chinese market soon, reported China Daily.
但白羽肉鸡依赖进口的情况不会持续太久。12月3日，农业农村部公布了3个通过审定的白羽肉鸡新品种：“广明2号”、“圣泽901”、和“沃德188”。据《中国日报》报道，国产肉鸡品种有望很快进入中国市场。
According to Wen Jie, deputy director of CAAS’ animal sciences institute, his team started working on the core technology to produce the broiler breed of chicken in 2009 and called on companies to launch independent breeding programs. In 2019, local varieties of the white-feather broiler chicken were bred successfully. Then the varieties underwent two years of testing.
中国农业科学院北京畜牧兽医研究所副所长文杰表示，他的团队从2009年开始钻研肉鸡新品种培育的核心技术，并呼吁企业开展自主育种项目。2019年，国内培育出首个白羽肉鸡新品种，这些品种又经过了两年测试。
In fact, China developed a domestic broiler breed in the 1990s, but it was wiped out by a disease outbreak in 2004. Since then, the country has relied on imports of chicks, spending more than 240 million yuan every year. But dependence on imports has many shortages. According to The Economist, the poultry industry is dominated by two firms: Aviagen owned by the EW Group of Germany and American poultry giant Cobb. It means that the price and import amount are controlled by these two providers. Taking animal diseases and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic into consideration, importing could also bring biosafety risks to China. For example, in 2016, there was a poultry shortage in China as the country banned US poultry imports in response to a bird flu outbreak, reported Reuters.
事实上，中国在上世纪90年代曾培育出一个国产肉鸡品种，但在2004年，该品种受疫病影响中断育种。从那以后，中国一直依赖进口鸡苗，每年花费超过2.4亿元。但依赖进口鸡苗有很多缺点。据《经济学人》报道，（全球）家禽业由两家公司主导：德国EW集团下属的安伟捷公司和美国家禽业巨头科宝公司。这意味着家禽价格和进口数量由这两家供应商控制。考虑到动物疾病和持续蔓延的新冠肺炎疫情大流行，进口也可能给中国带来生物安全风险。例如，据路透社报道，2016年，受禽流感爆发影响，中国禁止了美国的家禽进口，这导致中国家禽短缺。
To combat these risks, Wang Zongli, head of the National Animal Husbandry Service, stressed the importance of using more domestic breeds to give Chinese people more choices.
为了应对这些风险，全国畜牧总站站长王宗礼强调了培育更多国产品种、给中国人民更多选择的重要性。
The market share of domestic white-feather broiler varieties is expected to exceed 60 percent by 2035, according to Feng Zhongwu, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
中国农业科学院副院长冯忠武表示，到2035年，国产白羽肉鸡品种的市场占有率预计达到60%以上。
