ABSTRACT
It is well known that China’s rapid economic development in the past two decades is unparalleled in recent world history. From 1978 to 1999, China’s real average annual GDP growth rate was 9.14 percent, making it one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Real agricultural GDP growth rate was 5.92 percent. Its foreign trade expanded more rapidly than its overall economic growth. With the rapid growth of external sector, foreign trade has been playing a big role in the national economy since reforms started in the late 1970s. The real annual growth rate of the total value of China’s foreign trade was 14.59 percent in 1978-99, and the ratio of trade to GDP increased from 9.8 percent in 1978 to 32.8 percent in 1999. China is already the world’s fifth-largest trading country in terms of trade volume, and the second largest recipient of foreign investment for several years. China’s population, which stood at 1.259 billion in 1999, is expected to reach nearly 1.43 billion people by 2020. Recent economic reform brought about accelerating income growth. As a result, demand for food, particularly meat, grew - and continues to grow. The increase in demand for meat has, in turn, accelerated the demand for feed grain.
