Study On The Meat Consumption Of Urban And Rural Residents In China

China's rapid economic growth, the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization process and the rapid growth of household income of urban and rural residents have resulted in striking alteration in meat consumption patterns and consumer attitudes: one remarkable change is the rapid increase of away-from-home meat consumption and multiple demands for processed meat products such as semi-finished and cooked meat products; another is the change from quantity-increasing type to high quality.First, the main features and the trends of urban and rural residents'meat consumption were analyzed by using the statistical data of the Chinese State Statistics Bureau (SSB). Then utilizing the survey data of the second quarter of 2008, urban and rural residents'meat consumption was estimated, and various meat consumption structures, meat consumption behavior and its influencing factors were analyzed. Finally, using the cross-sectional survey data, a log-log demand system model for urban and rural residents'at-home and away-from-home meat consumption were employed in the empirical study. Meanwhile, this paper highlights the impact of quality on meat consumption, using a theoretical framework based on unit value (that is, 'Quality Price'), urban and rural residents'demand for meat quality was analyzed in empirical study, and income elasticity, quality elasticity and quality-adjusted self-price elasticity were also estimated.Compared with the previous literatures, the innovations in the dissertation are as bellow: one is the thorough analysis of both at-home and away-from-home meat consumption, which is updating and expanding the understanding of the urban and rural residents'meat consumption behavior; the other is the integration of quality difference into the analysis frame, which is an improvement in the methodological research compared with the previous similar domestic research.The main conclusions are as follows: 1. The proportion of pork consumption in meat consumption as a whole is declining, while the proportion of beef, mutton and poultry is rising, and the growth of poultry consumption outweighs that of beef and mutton; urban and rural residents'away-from-home meat consumption have taken a large proportion, the proportion of away-from-home beef and mutton consumption exceeds traditional pork and poultry; urban residents'at-home fresh meat accounts for 88.6% while processed meat products accounts for 11.4% so that there is enough room for improvement of processed meat products. 2. Households'income is the main factor influencing at-home and away-from-home meat consumption, the income elasticity of rural residents'at-home meat consumption is bigger than that of urban residents, the room for growth of at-home meat consumption lies in rural residents; the income elasticity of rural residents'away-from-home pork and poultry consumption is bigger than that of urban residents, but the income elasticity of rural residents'away-from-home beef and mutton consumption is smaller than that of urban residents. 3. Quality has significant effects on urban and rural residents'meat consumption, as quality improves, urban residents will increase all kinds of higher-quality meat, and rural residents will purchase more higher-quality pork, beef, mutton while reducing higher-quality poultry. Rapid increase of quality demand of meat is an important changing trend of future meat consumption, ignoring the quality factor will cause overestimation of meat consumption level. 4. Such demographic characteristic variables as family size, education level, age, nationality have significant effects on the behavior of at-home and away-from-home meat consumption, but these variables are not major factors because they just change a little in the short run. 5. The improvement of convenience of meat purchase and meat processing will have an active impact on stimulating rural residents'meat consumption; regional dummy variables also have significant effects on at-home and away-from-home meat consumption, but they are not the decisive factors.According to the above research results, four suggestions are proposed: first, to greatly increase the income level of rural residents and to develop the rural meat market; second, to strengthen food security and to improve meat quality; third, to speed up the construction of rural meat market and to improve the meat market environment; at last, to enrich the forms of meat products and to change the consumption concept.