ABSTRACT
The cattle and beef industry experienced rapid growth as a result of the release of productive capacity from the HPRS reforms, together with the incentives created by market reforms and the pro-active policies and administrative changes. This chapter outlines and analyses these higher value market segments as necessary background to the development of appropriate strategies and policies for future industry and rural development. The Chinese cattle and beef industry experienced extraordinarily rapid growth after 1980. Between 1980 and 1999, bovine numbers in China increased by 76 per cent from 72 million to 127 million head. Understanding these industry structures is an essential step in the formation of appropriate rural development strategies. The broad categorisation of market segments into low, medium and high value abstracts from the many different value segments that exist, but is a useful and convenient framework for making generalisations about the industry.
