Animal Food Manufacturing in China: Market Size, Businesses & Forecast 2026

The animal food manufacturing industry in China encompasses the large-scale production of compound, concentrated, and additive premix feeds for livestock, aquaculture, and domestic pets. As a vital component of the nation's agricultural secondary sector, the industry is transitioning toward structural consolidation and optimized grain efficiency to enhance national food security. According to the China Feed Industry Association and global survey data, China's industrial feed production reached 315.03 million metric tons in 2024, experiencing a modest contraction of 2.03% due to fluctuating livestock cycles and shifting grain input balances.

Industry snapshot

Key public data points

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What does the Animal Food Manufacturing in China industry cover?

This industry involves the mechanical and chemical processing of agricultural raw materials into balanced nutritional feeds for domesticated animals. The product scope is broadly divided into livestock feed, poultry feed, aquaculture feed, and specialty pet foods.

• •Covers the formulation of complete compound feeds, concentrated feeds, and micro-ingredient premixes.
• •Downstream consumption is heavily dominated by the swine segment, followed closely by poultry layers and broilers.
• •Classified under the secondary industry segment of processing agricultural and sidebar products.

Who operates in the industry and how is it structured?

The sector consists of thousands of industrial manufacturing plants distributed across key grain-producing and high-demand coastal provinces. Commercial operators range from state-backed agricultural conglomerates to massive vertically integrated private farming enterprises.

• •According to industry survey data, China operates over 1,032 large-scale feed production facilities with individual capacities exceeding 100,000 tons per annum.
• •Production is concentrated in major agricultural provinces, leveraging localized supply chains for corn and soybean meal.
• •The market is moving away from standalone local mills toward integrated feed-to-meat corporate networks.

What drives demand in the industry?

Industry demand is intimately linked to domestic meat consumption volumes, commercial farming industrialization, and evolving consumer lifestyle trends. Fluctuations in commercial hog and poultry inventories directly dictate monthly production volumes at manufacturing plants.

• •A recovery in domestic swine sow inventories in mid-2024 began driving localized feed demand spikes into late 2024 and early 2025.
• •Expanding urbanization and household incomes support steady long-term consumption of animal proteins and commercial pet food formulations.
• •Low domestic corn prices recorded in 2024, which fell 18 percent year-on-year to an average of 2,312 RMB per metric ton in August 2024, stimulated higher corn inclusions in compound feeds.

Who are the notable companies in the industry?

China's animal food manufacturing space features highly competitive, publicly traded corporate groups that control substantial shares of regional distribution networks. These entities frequently leverage vertical integration, combining proprietary feed mills with commercial animal husbandry and processing assets.

• •New Hope Liuhe Co., Ltd. represents one of the largest domestic feed manufacturing and agribusiness operations in the country.
• •Guangdong Haid Group Co., Ltd. is a major competitor specializing heavily in high-margin aquaculture feed formulas alongside livestock products.
• •Jiangxi Zhengbang Technology Co., Ltd. operates extensive feed processing lines closely aligned with its corporate swine production segments.
• •Tangmenshen Group Co., Ltd. and Muyuan Foods Co., Ltd. exert significant influence on commercial compound feed formulation and processing patterns.

What are the recent trends and outlook?

The industry is undergoing a government-guided transformation aimed at reducing reliance on imported feed ingredients and maximizing alternative proteins. Low-protein diets and synthetic amino acid supplementation are being prioritized to insulate the domestic market from international supply shocks.

• •The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) has enforced strategic initiatives to lower soybean meal proportions in animal diets.
• •National grain data shows a record domestic corn harvest of 294.92 million metric tons in 2024, facilitating a heavy substitution of corn over imported wheat or rice in feed mixes.
• •Commercial pet food manufacturing is seeing a surge in institutional investment and premiumization, outperforming traditional livestock sectors in growth rate.

How is the industry regulated?

Manufacturing operations are strictly overseen by central and provincial agricultural departments to ensure food safety, environmental protection, and biosecurity. Compliance frameworks regulate everything from raw material traceability to the prohibition of specific growth-promoting additives.

• •Governed by administrative rules under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) regarding feed and feed additive safety management.
• •Producers must strictly comply with national standard testing parameters covering heavy metals, mycotoxins, and pathogen limits.
• •Facilities are subject to periodic environmental audits enforcing industrial waste and emissions targets under ecological civilization mandates.

Government, statistical and trade sources used for this Claight analysis.

• China National Bureau of Statistics 2024 ·
• Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) Reports 2024 ·
• China Feed Industry Association (CFIA) Datasets 2024 ·
• Alltech Global Feed Survey 2025 ·
• USDA Foreign Agricultural Service Grain and Feed Update 2024