Consumption across the EU 28 has grown from 11m tonnes in 2005 to 15m tonnes in 2018, an increase of 230,000t per year. Per-capita consumption of poultry meat is forecast to reach 26.2kg per person annually in 2030.

The word on the ground is the Chinese are putting up poultry sheds at a fast rate to some way counter the effects of the African swine fever decimation of the pig industry over there. Protein sources such as chicken are in high demand. Bord Bia is forecasting that poultry production will rise by around 8% to 170,000t for 2019. Ireland is around 89% self-sufficient in terms of poultry output. There is still a significant volume of chicken imported in the form of fillets to make up the balance.

The Chinese market will be crucial to the poultry industry in terms of sustaining positive growth, especially for items such as chicken feet and offal. Developing the Chinese market for Irish poultry will start in early 2020, targeting trade professionals, market influencers, key decision-makers and media.

Peter McCann reports that despite the genetic potential of poultry improving at a staggering rate in recent decades, environmental factors have a larger bearing on the performance of birds. Speaking at the NI poultry industry conference, Alan Thompson presented figures which showed that genetics accounts for 30% of broiler performance in bodyweight, with the remaining 70% down to environmental factors, such as health, nutrition and management. Likewise, genetics accounts for only 5% of performance with mortality rate, 25% in feed convergence ratio and 32% in meat yield.

Here is an enlightening article on egg production that includes stark warnings.

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Bord Bia pork and poultry campaign to ‘build awareness’