In October, the number of breeding sows in stock, a major indicator for pork production potential, increased by 0.6%, marking the first month-on-month increase since April last year, said Yang Zhenhai, chief of the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine Bureau of China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, at a news conference on November 22nd.

"Various policies to encourage pork production are taking effect. Restoration of production at sizable pig farms is also accelerating," he said, “compared with the previous month, the hog amount at those producing more than 5,000 pigs annually－increased by 0.5% in October, and breeding sow stocks increased by 4.7%.” Farms producing more than 5,000 pigs annually total 13,000.

Pig stocks have seen bigger increases in the northeast and northwest along with parts of North China, while the decline of stocks in South China has been slowing, he added.

Meanwhile, the decline in hog amount has been narrowed further in October to 0.6%, compared to 9.2 percentage points and 2.4 percentage points in August and September, respectively.

Judged from these positive factors, the decline in hog production capacity in China has basically seen the bottom and will hopefully started to rally at the end of this year, Yang said.