Sluggish growth for China animal feed output this year

China's output of animal feed for 2009 will probably grow 2.4% to 140 million tonnes, marking the slowest growth rate since 2001.

The agricultural ministry forecasted that chicken feed output this year will fall by 8.7% to 24.33 million tonnes.

Low pork prices could contribute to the fall of chicken inventories, with chicken feed production likely to fall for the first time this year after five years of fast growth, the ministry said.

Beijing's subsidies for large-scale pig breeding farms have helped stabilise pig inventories, with pig feed output likely to rise 11.5% this year, the ministry said.

The feed industry has suffered since 2008, with a decline in meat consumption in rural areas, after being affected by the global financial crisis and China's food quality scandals have hit consumption of products ranging from dairy, eggs to fish.

Melamine is used by some feed mills to fool tests because it can boost the apparent protein content and was again detected in some samples this year. Notably, cow and pig feed have the highest concentrations of melamine and hormone additives.