Analysis on competitive power and raise countermeasures of beef and mutton products in Gansu Province

Based on comparative advantage methods, industrial concentration degree and costrevenue methods, the competitive powers of livestock products including mutton and beef were calculated in Gansu province. The result showed that the beef had no advantage of scale and mutton had a little, but there was obvious advantage of output for both beef and mutton. Under the combined action of advantages of scale and output, the comprehensive comparative advantage of beef was becoming much more remarkable and the mutton advantage improved steadily. The value of industrial concentration degree of beef was 57.932 6% in 2008, but only 48.918 7% for mutton. It could be concluded that the regional advantage was weak for mutton and remarkable for beef. In addition, the advantage areas, where beef and mutton were produced, were agglomerating towards the Hexi region and areas inhabited by the minority nationalities. Both selling prices and production costs of beef and mutton in Gansu have strong competitive advantages compared with levels of the national average and the major western animal husbandry provinces. Finally, some countermeasures and suggestions are put forward in order to raise the comparative advantages of distinctive livestock products.