Internationalization of markets in animal production

Animal production accounts for 16 % of the international agri-food trade. The growing imbalance between supply and demand for animal products in Asian countries, where consumption is growing, particularly in China, is boosting trade for the benefit of the major exporting countries: the European Union (EU), the United States, New Zealand, Brazil and Australia. While this development offers trade opportunities for structurally surplus countries, purchases are not always consistent from year to year and price competition is very strong, although some countries have qualitative requirements. The EU, which has a surplus in dairy products and pig meat, but is deficient (in value) in beef and poultry meat, is the world's largest exporter of animal products (with 22 %of the total, excluding intra-EU trade in 2016). This article deals with the evolution of trade in animal products using customs statistics data (BACI and COMEXT) from 2000 to 2016. It presents the evolution of international trade for different types of goods (dairy products, beef, pig meat, poultry meat) and highlights the trade trajectories of the main deficit countries (China, Japan and Russia) and the main surplus countries (India, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, the United States and the EU).