Rabbit meat production and processing in China

Abstract

Rabbit meat has become increasingly popular in China; however, the main available products are still as cut-up parts or whole carcass due to a lack of processing. Currently, rabbit meat products do not fully meet the consumer demand for convenience, thus hindering the further development of the rabbit meat industry. As the biggest rabbit meat producer globally, China has conducted a series of studies on rabbit meat processing and the development of new products. This review presents rabbit breeds, meat importation, exportation, and meat production in China. The development of the rabbit meat industry and research on rabbit meat processing are discussed. The main problems, including a lack of leading enterprises and brand products, insufficient investment and research, and the weakness of fundamental studies on traditional products, are highlighted. Furthermore, current trends of rabbit meat production and processing of being centralized and regionalized, as well as being intelligentized and standardized, are discussed.