China’s state planner has said it will encourage foreign investment in livestock and poultry breeding from 2020.
According to reporting in Reuters, the permission also extends to plant-based meat substitutes. The move by China’s National Development and Reform Commission comes as the country, the world’s foremost meat consumer, attempts to boost supplies of meat and alternative protein to overcome a major pork shortage after outbreaks of African swine fever decimated its pig herd.
China’s pig producers have ramped up imports of foreign breeding pigs to rebuild a sow herd that had fallen as much as 60 percent due to the deadly disease.
Major international players and local firms alike are already moving to develop and sell plant-based protein products to the China market.
