China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOC) held the regular press conference at 3 pm on August 29, and its spokesperson Gao Feng answered the questions raised by Chinese and foreign journalists.

　　　

Gao Feng said the MOC will closely follow the market and will put the central government's reserves of frozen pork, beef and mutton into market together with relevant departments in time to increase the supply of meat to the market. At the same time, it will guide the production and marketing areas to establish a stable cooperative relationship of purchase and marketing, promote the production and marketing between regions, and smooth the meat supply channels. In addition, the MOC will continue to encourage more pork imports in accordance with the market-oriented principle. All in all, we will take comprehensive measures and policies to ensure a stable supply in domestic meat market.

　　

Due to a sharp decline in hog herd across China under the impact of the African swine fever, hog price have surged. The average hog price now is 27.9 yuan/kg in China, an increase of 13.57 yuan/kg or 105.60% in the same period last year, according to Cofeed. 

Retail pork prices rose 7.8 percent to 32.4 yuan/kg in the week ended Aug. 14, up nearly 50% from a year earlier, according to China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

    

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said that pork prices continued surging in July mainly due to the expansion of the supply and demand gap of hog. In earlier July, the stock of hog fell in most part of North China, so that prices of hog and pork both rose sharply on tightened supply; and in mid-to-late July, prices fluctuated at the high level due to such factors as widening supply and demand gap and declining terminal consumption under high temperatures. Data by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs showed that in July 2019, the hog inventory declined by 9.4% month on month and 32.2% year on year, and the stock of breeding sows decreased by 8.9% month on month and 31.9% year on year.

With the soaring pork prices in China, its pork imports have also increased. According to the latest data released by China’s General Administration of Customs on August 23, the import volume of pork in July was 182,200 tonnes, a year-on-year increase of 106.7%, and the import value was 414 million US dollars, up 182.3% year on year; the cumulative import volume from January to July was 1.0009 million tonnes, a year-on-year increase of 36%, and the cumulative import value was 1.948 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 46.4%.

Another country got an order for pork from China. On August 23 local time, Argentina started to ship its first export of pork to China, with a batch of 300 tonnes. It is expected to arrive in Shanghai in early October and the total amount of pork exported to China from Argentina this year is expected to reach 18,000 tonnes.

In order to stabilize pig production and guarantee pork supply, Premier Li Keqiang chaired the State Council routine meeting on August 21. The meeting pointed out that local governments should combine measures and policies to resume hog production and promptly scrap bans and limits on hog raising except those stipulated in laws and regulations, develop large-scale breeding and support farmers to raise hogs. The upper limit of 15 mu (1 mu=0.067 ha) of land for the auxiliary facilities for hog production was canceled. The meeting also called for efforts to guarantee pork supply and increase local pork reserves.