Poultry seems to be one of the few things the US can competitively export to China, and on the face of it, it doesnt seem to make any sense. Why cant China produce domestic poultry products far cheaper than shipping all the way from America??? http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/business/global/27yuan.html
I dont know about wheat but they do produce a lot of corn...156 million tons in 2008. Cracked corn mixed with higher protein wheat kernels is a very good chicken feed.
And they're actually the second-largest chicken producer as well, behind the United States. The imports seem to come down to the sheer number of mouths to feed. As China has developed and people rise out of poverty, they've switched from eating mostly grains to eating a lot more meat. So demand for meat (of all types) has exploded in recent years. And since China's grain production is maxed out (and it takes a lot more grain to feed an animal to then feed a human than to just feed the human directly), China is forced to depend on imports (either of feed grain so they can expand domestic meat production, or of meat itself). Nah, that's not accurate. Food products are less than a quarter of American exports to China. The rest is stuff like chemicals, pharmaceuticals, transportation equipment, computers and electronics, etc. We export something like $40 Billion worth of goods to China every year (and a lot more in services). CA alone exports $11 Billion of goods to China every year. Further, China is easily the fastest-growing market for US exports, having roughly quadrupled in size in the past decade (i.e., we've gone from exporting $10 Billion worth of goods to China in 200, to around $40 Billion today. And that's with their devalued currency in place, to boot). http://www.visualeconomics.com/us-exports-to-china-by-state/
Well I'm very surprised at the numbers for electronics exports...and theres no figures on lumber exports either, which I thought would be way up there. Thanks for your comments.
In many cases they do, but in US there is essentially zero value to chicken legs and feet, yet all chickens still come with them.* In China the legs and feet are considered one of the best parts of the chicken, so they will pay good prices for them. That is the main chicken part US can ship to China and under price the local production. Note China does not need to grow the soy beans, etc that are used to feed Chinese raised chickens - China is by far the world's main importer of soybeans from Brazil, Argentina and the USA. ---------- * The genetic engineers have not started to work on the legless chicken. Give them a few more years.
LOL...no in the u.s the leg is eaten, like most everywhere else. Not the feet but i think those are big on south America.
LOL! They are given a glamourous name in Dim Sum...phoenix talons! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_feet#Chinese_cuisine
When I say "chicken legs" that does not include the "drum sticks." The legs are the yellow, sort of scaly, shafts below that. Here is a pack common in Chinese stores: Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! If that does not print, see Carcano's link in prior post http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_feet#Chinese_cuisine
They are (and so are the feet, for that matter), but not nearly so much as chicken breasts. Think of every McDonald's, Wendy's, etc. in the country, and how they sell millions of chicken-breast sandwiches every day, but no wings or legs at all. Likewise all of the chicken sold as sliced deli meat - that's all breast. And I'm sure everyone knows some health nuts that eat tons of chicken breasts, but none of the other parts. So US production is scaled for demand for chicken breasts, and as such produces a big excess of the other parts. The excess legs mostly get exported to Russia, while the feet and excess wings go to China.
Haiti's chicken industry was wiped out when the agreed to accept us chicken parts. Poor people want a cheap price for chicken and are willing to eat the parts American don't want. An article on chicken parts exported to china. http://economyincrisis.org/content/china-levying-duties-us-chicken-exports The US prefers breasts but will eat some thighs and even some wings. We don't eat necks, lower legs, heads, hearts,livers, lungs or guts. Some of that stuff can be used for pet food or can be fed to chickens pigs and even cattle. We probably should not be feeding meat to cattle because their bodies were not designed for that but we are apparently still feeding cattle chicken by-products particularly chicken feathers.
Speak for yourself. As a child I planted corn as food for us and the chickens I raised for our table.* We were poor so all was used. The cats got the heads, below drumstick part of the legs and guts, but I ate the rest of your list. I don't much like the breast meat - it is too dry. In Brazil, the hearts are quite expensive and sold separately. I love chicken livers - they cook quickly in a covered pan on a low fire with with a little oil to prevent sticking and salt. Lift the lid and turn them over once or twice. They are the best part of the chicken, IMHO. My chickens mainly scratched for their food, but each day I would call them to give corn and they would come running from all directions. Once I was not at the farm when a storm approached and both my parents tried to call my chickens to get under the porch, but they did not come. They knew my voice. ----------------- * I also sold two bushels of shucked corn to a local moonshiner in the hills of West Virginia. The Rural Electrification Agency, REA, planes would occasionally fly low over our farm (I don't know why as we had no electric power.) On the bottom of the wings was painted: "Don't shoot. We don't report stills."
