An analyst with Rabobank says “all roads lead to China” when describing the potential for the U.S. poultry sector’s success in 2017. At the National Chicken Council annual meeting last week, Will Sawyer said trade with China would be critical to the success of the U.S. poultry sector next year, while another analyst said trade was the key to the U.S. beef sector. Meatingplace reports expected increases in supplies and decreased prices of chicken, beef, pork and grain had a panel of analysts at the meeting thinking along the same lines. Their expectations were more or less in line with USDA forecasts for 2017 compared with 2016. Sawyer’s enthusiasm for the Chinese market for U.S. chicken comes as China’s poultry production is expected to decrease by 10 to 15 percent in 2017 from 2016.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting news service.