According to USDA-FAS GAIN Report JA2024-43 released on September 4th, broiler production in Japan will increase by 1.7 percent in 2025 from the previous year to 1.75 million metric tons. Domestic consumption should increase by 0.7 percent to 2.85 million metric tons in 2025.
Concurrently, imports will decline by 0.5 percent to 1.1 million metric tons representing 37 percent of total availability. Major suppliers to Japan in 2022 comprised Brazil ($950 million); Thailand ($440 million); U.S. ($25 million) and the E.U. ($12 million). Imports from joint-venture operations in mainland China comprise specialty products requiring a high level of manual handling and preparation.
Demand during the first half of 2024 was driven by increased tourism, and high prices for imported beef and pork as a result of the progressive depreciation of the yen. Feed prices are disproportionately high compared to other major world producers due to a reliance on imported ingredients, despite feed stabilization subsidies. Japan has enhanced biosecurity following successive annual losses to HPAI, mainly affecting the egg-production sector.