All rights reserved. It's there that consumption has soared during the '90s.
China produces more than half the world's pork.
Because chickens convert grain to meat more efficiently than pork, the Chinese government is encouraging poultry production. The question is whether an emerging market can continue at that pace of expansion. Asian economic problems are already slowing or halting the rise in meat consumption in the region. Asian demand for poultry was also hurt by the recent slaughter of poultry in Hong Kong to try to control the spread of an avian influenza virus. The scare cut grocery store sales of chicken in Singapore and Bangkok.