China Chicken Exports Hit Record High, Shift to Net Exporter

Strong Export Figures

Official industry statistics fully demonstrate the explosive growth momentum of China’s poultry outbound trade. In 2025, China’s total chicken meat export volume reached 1.085 million metric tons, representing a remarkable 41% year-on-year increase. The corresponding export value successfully hit $2.59 billion, nearly doubling the trade volume recorded in 2020. The robust growth trend has continued steadily into 2026. From January to May of this year, China’s chicken exports rose 51% year-on-year to 546,000 metric tons, setting a new half-year export record for the national poultry industry.

According to professional USDA market forecasts, China’s chicken export volume will reach 1.4 million metric tons in 2026 and is projected to further climb to 1.8 million metric tons in 2027. After achieving continuous monthly net export surplus starting from late 2024, China secured a full-year chicken trade surplus in 2025, firmly completing the transition to a stable net exporter. Meanwhile, domestic chicken import volume has remained at a reasonable low level, forming a long-term sustainable trade surplus structure.

Solid Industrial Foundation

The record-breaking export performance is built on China’s mature and complete poultry industrial system. The entire industrial chain covers standardized breeding, automated slaughtering, fine deep processing, professional cold chain logistics, and strict unified inspection procedures. All production bases follow strict HACCP management standards and pass multiple international food safety certifications, ensuring that Chinese frozen chicken cuts, chicken breast, chicken wings and pre-cooked poultry products fully comply with the stringent import requirements of mainstream global markets.

Diverse Product Range

Chinese poultry suppliers possess prominent cost-performance advantages and flexible diversified product lines to meet global market demands. Customized frozen poultry products are available for different regional consumption habits and wholesale needs. At present, high-quality chicken breast serves as the top exported product category, accounting for more than half of the total export volume. Meanwhile, frozen mid-joint wings and various specialty chicken cuts maintain rapid export growth, widely favored by global catering distributors and bulk importers.

Expanding Global Markets

China continues to implement a diversified export market strategy to effectively avoid single-market trade risks. While consolidating long-term stable cooperative relationships with traditional markets including Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong, Chinese poultry enterprises have actively explored emerging overseas markets. Export business in Southeast Asia, Russia, the Middle East and Malaysia has achieved rapid expansion, greatly enriching global market coverage and stabilizing overseas sales channels.

Industry Outlook

The successful shift to a net exporter strongly proves the powerful global competitiveness of China’s modern poultry industry. Amid the challenges of tight global poultry supply and fluctuating international feed prices, China chicken exports deliver stable, high-quality and cost-effective frozen poultry solutions for global wholesale importers. Industry insiders expect the positive export growth trend to last for the next two years. With continuous product structure optimization, increasing international certification qualifications and in-depth exploration of emerging markets, Chinese poultry products will steadily expand global market share and become a core stable supplier for the global poultry trade chain.