British chickens find their feet on Chinese menu

Chicken feet from the United Kingdom may soon end up on Chinese dinner table, if the ongoing negotiations between Chinese and British businesses prove fruitful, sources say.

A high-level British delegation is now in China to hold discussions on new and unusual opportunities for collaboration between British and Chinese businesses, and discussed among other things chicken feet and other poultry product exports.

The 11-member delegation includes chief veterinary officers and advisers from the British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Food Standards Agency, and poultry, pig and cattle industry bodies like the British Poultry Council.

"The BPC is hoping to establish a good working relationship with the Chinese government and agree on the next steps like poultry meat approval and inspection of slaughterhouses," Maire Burnett, the agricultural policy manager of the BPC says.

The BPC represents 30 slaughterhouses and 2,500 chicken farms. Four companies - 2 Sisters Food, Moy Park, Faccenda and Cargill Meats - account for 85 percent of poultry supplied in the UK markets.

In the UK, millions of chicken feet are directly dumped in landfills every week along with other unwanted body parts such as heads, livers and gizzards as there is no market for them as food.

However, in China they are called "phoenix talons" and considered a delicacy and served as a snack.

In most areas of China, chicken feet are greatly sought-after, steamed in black pepper and chili sauce or served cold as a handy bar snack. They are valued for their unique texture where the consumers prefer to eat the meat on the bone.

UK chicken producers have estimated that selling chicken feet for food in China could add an extra 15 percent, or 1.50 pounds, to the revenue earned from each bird.

In 2012 China imported 231,700 tons of chicken feet from abroad, worth around 214 million pounds, according to British media.

Owen Paterson, British environment secretary, had in an online blog in 2012 stated that during a visit to Shanghai, he was surprised to learn that chicken feet are a delicacy in Shanghai and the store imports the same from Brazil.

What is a wasted by-product of the poultry industry in the UK can be sold in China thereby adding value, Paterson says.

Exports of chicken are currently blocked to all of China except Hong Kong, but Britain's other food exports to the country hit 12.8 billion pounds last year.

Since February 2007, China (apart from Hong Kong) banned imports of all poultry products from the UK following the outbreak of the fatal H5N1 strain on a Suffolk turkey farm.

BPC has also invited a Chinese veterinary delegation to see first hand the poultry farms and processing factories in the UK.

Burnett says that after the Chinese veterinary officials visit and inspect the poultry meat slaughterhouses in the UK, realistically, they're looking at 2015 as the earliest date for exports.

Before UK poultry meat slaughterhouses can export to China, Burnett says that they will have to meet strict import requirements and undergo an inspection by Chinese veterinary officials.

BPC is not only focusing on chicken feet, Burnett says adding that it will also explore opportunities for chicken, turkey and duck exports.

"Poultry meat consumption in China currently totals about 13 million tons. Between now and 2020 experts predict that consumption will grow by an average 3 percent every year. Some of this will be supplied by domestic production, but China is and will remain a major importer of poultry meat," he says.

The United States has been a major supplier for China in the past years but more recently Brazil and Argentina have increased their market share.

From a British perspective it is estimated that export opportunities could exceed 70 million pounds, Burnett says.

The UK already exports chicken feet to other Asian markets including Thailand and in 2012 it struck a 50 million pound ($84 million) deal to export pig body parts to China, including ears, tails, brains and trotters.

Zhou Heran contributed to this story.

zhangchunyan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 04/25/2014 page23)