According to Statistics of the Chinese Custom Office, during the period from January to October, the accumulative import of chicken meat was 0.506 million tons with an import value of 356.887 million US dollars, an increase of 12.1% and 6.6% increase over the same period of the previous year. The accumulative export of live chicken during the same period was 30.838 million birds, with an import value of 53.848 million US dollars, a decline of 10.1% and 18.9% as compared with those during the same period of the previous year. China had exported 0.314 million tons of chicken product with an export value of 568.885 million US dollars, an decline of 11.2% and 13.1% as compared with those during the same period of the previous year. During the period from January to October, China had a net import of 0.193 million tons chicken meat with a net import value of 211.998 million US dollars.

1. Situation of chicken import:
During the period from January to October, China has accumulatively imported 0.506 million tons of chicken meat, of which, the import of chicken entrails was 0.324 million tons, an increase of 27.2% as compared with that during the same period of the previous year, accounting for 64% of the total volume of import. The import of frozen chicken wings (excluding wing tops) 55000 tons, an increase of 7% as compared with that during the same period of the previous year. The chicken meat imported from the U.S. was 0.497 million tons, accounting for 98.7% of the total volume of chicken import, while the import of chicken to Guangdong Province accounted for 71% of the total chicken import.

The reasons for frozen chicken increase are as follows: ①The domestic demand (mainly Guangdong Province) for chicken was very vigorous therefore large quantities of chicken meat was imported from abroad. ② In 2003 the import tax of chicken meat had further been declined and the import price of chicken had further been declined, of which, the price of frozen chicken wings had dropped from 1.34 US dollar per kg in the first half of the year to 1.05 US dollar per kg during the same period of 2003, an decrease of 21.6% as compared with that during the same period of the previous year.

2. Situation of chicken export:
In view of the trade mode, the export of chicken meat product from China can be broken down into frozen chicken and processed chicken meat. China had exported 0.18 million tons of frozen chicken, a decline of 19.5% as compared with that during the same period of the previous year, and exported 0.119 million tons of processed chicken meat, a decline of 1.4% as compared with that during the same period of the previous year.

In view of the country of destination, China had exported 0.17 million tons of chicken meat product to Japan, a decline of 19.5% as compared with that during the same period of the previous year, accounting for 54.7% of the total export volume. China had exported 46000 tons of chicken meat products to Hong Kong, an increase of 18.4% as compared with that during the same period of the previous year. China had exported 46000 tons of chicken meat products to Russia, maintaining the level as the previous year, while the export of chicken meat to Malaysia had declined by 45.9% as compared with that during the same period of the previous year.

In view of the exporting provinces, the chicken product exported from Shandong province was 0.146 million tons, a decline of 19.1% as China had exported 0.17 million tons of chicken meat product to Japan, a decline of 19.5% as compared with that during the same period of the previous year, accounting for 46.5% of the total export volume. The declines of chicken meat export from Liaoning and Jilin provinces were 24.6% and 29% as compared with that during the same period of the previous year, respectively, accounting for 12.7 and 6.7% of the total export volume. After removal of the ban of import chicken meat from China to Japan, Beijing had turned back the situation of decline and achieved an increase of 63.8% as compared with that during the same period of the previous year, accounting for 8.3% of the total export volume.

The reasons of chicken meat export from China are as follows: On May 12, 2003, Japan had check out avian influenza virus from the duck imported from China and ban the import of poultry meat and its product from China. Influenced by this the number of import of chicken meat from China by Malaysia had also been declined by a big margin. During the 5-8 month of ban for import of poultry meat and its product, the ports of Shandong Province had exported only 31000 tons of frozen chicken, a decline of 48.3% as compared with that during the same period of the previous year.