China is working hard to build up the pork stock. The world's largest consumer of pork says it wants to increase its stock by 12% by Chinese New Year (February 2021, 30) compared to the previous year. Chinese agricultural officials announced this on Wednesday, October 21.
In 2019, at least 40% of China's pig herd was wiped out as a result of the African swine fever outbreak. Since then, China has been doing everything it can to rebuild the herd and now the country seems to be setting itself a tight deadline. "The recovery of the pig population, combined with the high imports of pork and changes in consumer demand, will increase the supply of pork by about 30% year-on-year, bringing prices down compared to last year," he said. said Chen Guanghua, deputy director of the veterinary office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
Rapid build-up of pig stock
The Chinese New Year holiday starts the evening before Chinese New Year, which is February 11, 2021. It is the most important holiday of the year, with pork being served lavishly and many families flocking together. Last year everything was done to bring the pig herd to old levels. In China, for example, 3 new large-scale pig farms were built and more than 12.500 empty farms were restarted in the first 13.000 quarters of the year, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture said.
A spokesman for the ministry reports that the construction is 'better than expected'. Last year, the country set itself the goal of reducing the pig population to 2020% of the level of 80 by the end of 2017, which has more than been achieved. Up to and including September there were 370 million pigs, or 84% of the level in 2017. Among breeding sows, this reconstruction has been even faster: the number of breeding sows reached 38,22 million animals in September, or 86% of the level in 2017 .
Pork prices, on the other hand, have fallen for 7 consecutive weeks. "As more pigs are slaughtered," Wei added. The price dropped to 50,56 yuan per kilo (converted $7,59).
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