The USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) projects China’s chicken imports to drop by 33 percent this year and another 15 percent next year, as domestic production outpaces growing consumption and the country’s own exports surge. In its annual report on the Chinese poultry market, FAS’s Beijing office forecast chicken meat production to jump 9 percent this year and another 5.6 percent next year to 19 million metric tons (mt). While China’s population peaked in 2021 — there is some suspicion that population decline is already further along than official data reflects — FAS projects domestic chicken consumption to rise 6.3 percent this year and 4 percent next year, but with fewer U.S. birds on the...