Asian Livestock: Opportunities, challenges and the response

Abstract

Consumption  of  livestock  products  in  developing  countries  in  general  and  Asia  in  particular  has shown a remarkable upward trend since the early 1980s. Delgado et al. (1990) were among the first to call  attention  to  these  trends  and  characterized  the  phenomenon  as  a  revolution  of  sorts.  Although some debate has arisen recently on the use of the term ‘livestock revolution’ assigned by them (Pica- Cimara and Otte, 2009.), there is little doubt that Asian livestock sector growth over the past nearly four  decades  has  been  extraordinary.  While  global meat  consumption  recorded  a  compound  annual growth  of  a  little  over  2.5  percent  between  1980  and  2007,  Asian  consumption  grew  at  the  rate  of 5.2%, thus more than doubling the share of Asia in global meat consumption. Comparable figures for milk  consumption  were  1.4  percent  and  4.4  percent  (Table  1).  To  be  sure,  there  were  considerable variations both across countries and time with the growth being much more rapid during the decades of 1970s, 1980s and 1990s (Figures 1 and 2).  Although, at the global and regional level some slow down is predicted in future growth in the sector, general expectations are that the demand for animal source  foods  will  continue  to  grow  at  a  reasonable  pace  creating  diverse  opportunities  within  and across livestock producing regions including Asia