quote:
Originally posted by Fla. Jim:
+++LINK+++
Why China and America Fight Over Chicken Feet
International squabbles have stopped a once-mighty chicken foot trade.
by Kristi Allen January 28, 2019
A large amount of China's imported chicken consists of paws.
A large amount of China’s imported chicken consists of paws. All photos Kristi Allen

Americans eat a lot of chicken, clocking in at almost 100 pounds per person per year. However, there’s one part of the bird many overlook: the chewy, clawed feet.

Chicken feet are a favorite treat around the world. Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, and many other countries all have their own classic preparations of chicken feet. If there’s one place where they’re most popular, it’s China. Across the country, chicken feet are eaten everywhere from formal banquet halls to hole-in-the-wall lunch counters.

Paul Aho, a poultry economist and consultant, estimates that up to 75 percent of China’s annual chicken imports are made up solely of feet (or paws, as they’re known in the poultry industry). Most of those chicken feet once came from the world’s biggest chicken producer: the United States. But despite the massive demand, fraught international trade politics means that the epic flow of chicken feet to China has slowed to a trickle.
Chicken feet are eaten everywhere from banquet hall to hole-in-the-wall.
The sinewy, meatless appendages of skin and tendon are known by a more flattering name in Chinese: “phoenix talons,” or fèng zhǎo (凤爪). Different regions of China all have their own local spin. One popular dish is a Cantonese dim sum standard in both China and the States. The feet are fried to make the skins puffy, then simmered for several hours. Finally, they’re slathered with a sauce made from fermented red bean paste and steamed. Most recipes combine two or more cooking methods to fully tenderize the tough skin and tendons. Chicken feet can be served hot or cold, spicy or mild, in soups and stews or on their own. They’re sold as snacks in corner stores, often shrink-wrapped in plastic for convenience.

In addition to their tastiness, Chinese people are also fans of chicken feet for their health benefits. The collagen-rich snack is said to be good for the skin. Since they’re often served cold, the demand rises sharply in the warmer months of the year, between April and October. Chicken feet are eaten so frequently that they’re often more expensive than actual chicken meat. In fact, the domestic poultry industry can’t keep up with demand.

China imports nearly a billion dollars worth of poultry every year. A significant amount of that once came from the United States. “We sent a lot of paws to China, about 400,000 metric tons per year,” Aho says. American paws were particularly popular for their large size. Economists love to point to this as a classic example of gains from trade: What would otherwise be a useless leftover is a billion-dollar product in another market. American companies get extra profit from each chicken, and Chinese consumers get more of a prized delicacy.

The chicken paw case is an interesting example of how international trade affects prices. While China does produce lots of poultry, many of their chicken paws are exported to richer East Asian countries such as Korea and Japan. This lets them command higher prices, writes researcher Xiaosi Yang. Meanwhile, billions of American chicken paws are worth next to nothing in their country of origin. Yet they can be sold in China, where even a low price means the seller can extract profit from an otherwise worthless byproduct.
While it might seem like a home run for free trade, the United States and China have turned the international chicken paw trade into a subject of diplomatic wrangling, retaliatory tariffs, and even formal complaints to the World Trade Organization. Years before trade wars were the talk of Twitter, chicken feet were stirring up talk of unfair trade practices and reciprocity.

The United States and China have traditionally kept their poultry and other meat markets closed to each other. Reasons range from protectionism to food safety scares. For example, the Chinese beef market was closed to the United States after a single instance of mad cow disease was reported in Washington state in 2003. The Chinese didn’t reopen their beef market to American imports until 2017.

When China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, however, they began importing American chicken feet rapidly. Chicken paw imports from the States grew more than 50 percent each year, even after America banned Chinese chicken in 2004 after a bird flu scare. By 2009, almost 80 percent of imported chicken feet in China came from the United States.
That year, Beijing decided enough was enough. Chinese authorities filed a complaint with the WTO, hoping to force the States to reopen their market to Chinese chicken. They also slapped chicken feet from the States with high tariffs, on the grounds that Americans were flooding the country with below-market-rate paws, and local suppliers couldn’t compete. Chicken paw imports dropped by 80 percent, and the American government in turn initiated a trade dispute at the WTO. (Chicken foot imports to Hong Kong shot up simultaneously, as smuggled goods still frequently make their way through the territory into the mainland Chinese food system.)

By 2013, the WTO had ruled in favor of the United States. But China didn’t immediately drop their tariffs, and the United States renewed their complaint in 2016. Tentatively, the two countries began working on an agreement that would allow for reciprocal market access. One potential solution was that China would drop its poultry tariffs, and the States would allow some importation of Chinese chicken products.
But in 2015, bird flu struck again. A massive outbreak in the United States led dozens of countries, including China, to close their borders to American chicken imports. While most have reopened their markets to American chicken, the Chinese have yet to do so. According to Aho, China is expected to import only 375,000 metric tons of all chicken products in 2019, a number far lower than the 400,000 tons of paws alone that they imported before the ban. As a result, America is awash with chicken feet. Most American chicken paws are now rendered for animal feed, Aho says, adding that “the value of paws for rendering is just a fraction of the value” of a paw sold in China.

Today, the Chinese market is still shut to American chicken imports. But that may change soon. In the flurry of negotiations surrounding the current trade war, the poultry industry has been pushing hard for Beijing to lift the current ban. Industry experts are confident American’s extra-large chicken feet can edge out the competitors. But for the time being, the United States has few million pounds of extra chicken feet laying around. The next time you’re ordering takeout or enjoying a dim sum brunch, consider trying some phoenix talons.

Gastro Obscura covers the world’s most wondrous food and drink.
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This message has been edited. Last edited by: Fla. Jim,

quote:

When China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001

They must've been cheering Slick Willie in Arkansas then, just like they must be shitting bricks now. The name of the game at places like Anderson is "everything but the cluck". OTOH, I wonder how much chicken feet sales from the US simply shifted to other places in Asia?

Danged Chinese will eat anything!

OP: could you edit that copy/paste? There's a lot of extra stuff in there that makes it very hard to read.

They make the best soup/broth there is.

A (semi)local butcher sells them at the Farmers Market and I snag them whenever I see them.

Y'all are welcome to my share of chicken feets.

Yuck.

The same people who would complain about eating chicken feet don't even think twice about eating pork buns.

Just sayin'.

If you've been on a chicken ranch and see the chicken shit the chicken feet stand in all day you'd eet mor' beef....

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
The same people who would complain about eating chicken feet don't even think twice about eating pork buns.

Just sayin'.

What's a pork bun? As far as pig parts I avoid, there's pork feet, pork knuckles, and chitterlings to name a few. Pork rinds are great.

I'll add my share of chicken feet to Shugart's for whoever wants 'em. Along with the gizzards and livers.

At one time I worked at a company that printed retail food packaging for Tyson foods... including some for frozen chicken feet for export to China. IIRC they were ziplock reclosable 40# bags...

Yea, people buying chicken feet 40# at a time!

Pass....

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
They make the best soup/broth there is.

A (semi)local butcher sells them at the Farmers Market and I snag them whenever I see them.

Indeed!

I grab a few pounds every month from the Korean grocery store. They are cleaned and peeled. Couple dollars a pound. I throw them in the pressure cooker with onions, garlic, pepper, carrots and celery. 4-5 hours and you have the best damn broth there is.

I heard a story that the marketing executive at Tyson (or Perdue, or whoever) that first figured out that the Chinese wanted the damn things was a corporate hero.

^^ Can you imagine having to landfill that much organic material?

quote:

Originally posted by cheesegrits:

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
The same people who would complain about eating chicken feet don't even think twice about eating pork buns.

Just sayin'.

What's a pork bun? As far as pig parts I avoid, there's pork feet, pork knuckles, and chitterlings to name a few. Pork rinds are great.

I'll add my share of chicken feet to Shugart's for whoever wants 'em. Along with the gizzards and livers.

If you have to ask... the joke's lost on you.

quote:

Originally posted by rockchalk06:

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
They make the best soup/broth there is.

A (semi)local butcher sells them at the Farmers Market and I snag them whenever I see them.

Indeed!

I grab a few pounds every month from the Korean grocery store. They are cleaned and peeled. Couple dollars a pound. I throw them in the pressure cooker with onions, garlic, pepper, carrots and celery. 4-5 hours and you have the best damn broth there is.

What kind of Okie are you anyway? That ain’t okay.

My mouth is watering rockchalk. That's going to be good!

Nice that you can get them already cleaned. That's the only part of them that sucks. Very time consuming.

There aren't too many times that I miss living in a more culturally diverse area, but this is one. It'd be nice to just drive to a local store and pick some up whenever.

quote:

Originally posted by Jimineer: What kind of Okie are you anyway? That ain’t okay.

I’m transplanted. I’m from Kansas!

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
My mouth is watering rockchalk. That's going to be good!

Nice that you can get them already cleaned. That's the only part of them that sucks. Very time consuming.

There aren't too many times that I miss living in a more culturally diverse area, but this is one. It'd be nice to just drive to a local store and pick some up whenever.

It was great. If I’m feeling sore or worn out, I’ll take 3 cups of the frozen broth and put a packet of sodium free chicken boullion in it. Nice pick me up!

I stumbled onto them by accident at a Korean grocery store looking for stuff to make kimchi. I got lucky with these.

I love this international obscura. I had once heard the Viet Nam war was over Bras. specifically they imported the majority of the small wire pieces that snapped the bras together. the small hands of the Vietnamize workers were perfect for the sewing work needed. Major importer of bra fabrics and metal, exporting the worlds bra supplies.

then I heard the war was about Bananas!
the Big Mike bananas were dying off, and Vietnams Cavendish strain of bananas were immune to the Panama disease that was killing the big Mike bananas. the cavendish bananas are sold world wide.

now we are going to war over chicken feet and soy beans.

tymll
john

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Shugart:
Y'all are welcome to my share of chicken feets.

Yuck.

But...each one comes with it's own toothpick attached...

I get chicken feet for my dog. He loves them. Also get duck & turkey feet. He does not prefer 1 over the others, he's happy with them all.