Determinants of Consumption Structure of Livestock Products among Rural Chinese Residents: Household Characteristics and Regional Heterogeneity

Livestock products provide essential micro-nutrients and animal protein to rural residents. Upgrading the consumption pattern of livestock products is not only crucial for improving rural residents’ health and quality of life but also for achieving food security and a healthy China under the “Great Food View” development concept. To identify the characteristics and determinants of residents’ livestock products consumption structure in rural China, we used the Logit model to empirically analyze the key factors affecting rural residents’ consumption structure of livestock products from the perspective of household characteristics and regional heterogeneity using a survey data of 4529 rural residents across 10 provinces. The findings reveal that, firstly, rural residents consume a variety of livestock product categories, predominantly meat, meat-egg, meat-milk, and meat-egg-milk. Secondly, the family characteristics of the number of people eating at home, education level, access to food nutrition and health information, ethnicity, and age structure significantly affect the consumption structure of livestock products among rural residents. Thirdly, self-raising of livestock and poultry can support rural residents’ consumption of livestock products. Fourthly, there are notable variations in the consumption structure of livestock products between different regions. Based on this, we suggest strategies to optimize and support the consumption structure of livestock products for rural residents, such as promoting consumption upgrading, advocating market segmentation for livestock products, and improving regional self-sufficiency.