The Evolution of Raising Rabbits and the Commercial Balance of the Meat on International and Local Scale

Abstract

Raising rabbit is an important branch of animal husbandry for its multitude of products, but especially for the meat production. The purpose of this paper was to highlight trends in livestock slaughtered for meat rabbits and the rabbit meat trade in the last 9-10 years. This paper uses primary data collected from the FAOSTAT database of current availability. Studying this data, we calculated the share of the differences between reference years, interpreting the results. In 2011, at the world level was registered a stock up with 17,3%, compared to 2002. Trade has been declining, imports and exports reached 29,291 t and respectively 36,590 t in 2010. At continental level, Asia is the world leader, with a flock in permanent increase in 2011, with 66.2% higher than in 2002, the only decline being in 2007 and 2008 years. Next in the continental hierarchy is Europe, whose stock decreased by approximately 9.8%, the evolution being in oscillatory progress from year to year. Asia's trade balance shows a meat export of 10692 t and an import of only 8.5% of its value. The country with the greatest stock is China, with an increase of about 33% in 2011 compared to 2002, followed by Italy with an increase of 13% in 2011. As for trade, export China is ranked 1, followed by France and not to be neglected countries like Hungary, Spain, Argentina etc. The largest import is owned by Germany, followed by Italy and other major countries as France, Russian Federation, etc. Romania has seen a decrease of rabbits stock of over 93%, from 2 million head in 2002 to 37,000 in 2011. The meat import was of 2 t in 2003, leading in 2010 to 50 t meat, the exports being nonexistent.

We conclude that by implementing programs to support rabbits rising, such as in other states, rabbit breeding for Romania could be a solution to reduce poverty in disadvantaged regions and an opportunity for the development of agriculture. Romania, through such programs could be a first step towards the development of rabbit meat production and export, since many European countries import rabbit meat amounts exceeding exports appreciably.