The Pork Consumption Characteristics of Chinese Urban Residents: The Outlook for 2020

China has the highest pork consumption in the world. As incomes increase and the urbanization process accelerates, the consumption of pork by Chinese residents will continue to grow. This paper studies the proportion of the household pork consumption account and examines the use of apparent pork consumption as a bridge that links consumption and production. Based on the pork consumption of urban and rural residents from 2000 to 2012, combined with per capita income, the total population and the rate of urbanization, we can analyse China’s market demand in the pork trade for 2020, which will be useful for countries who are interested in potential trade with China. The research shows two important findings: First, with the per capita income of urban residents increasing, their per capita pork consumption is also on the rise, and as increasing numbers of rural residents move to urban areas with the acceleration of urbanization in China, the urban areas will be the most important pork market in the future. Secondly, the per capita pork consumption of rural residents will still be lower than that of urban residents in 2020, so there will be more room for growth in pork consumption in rural areas.