Chinese vendors sell pork and other meat products at their stalls in a market in Kunming, capital of Southwest China's Yunnan Province in June. Photo: IC

China's pork imports increased rapidly during the first three quarters of 2019, which an expert said is partially due to many domestic companies rushing to import pork for high profits.

China imported about 1.33 million tons of pork from January to September, up 43.6 percent compared with the same period of 2018, data from the General Administration of Customs (GAC) showed on Monday.

Meanwhile, the country's beef imports increased 53.4 percent to 1.13 million tons, according to GAC.

China's live hog price was 34.4 yuan ($4.85) per kilogram during the first 10 days of October, up 4.8 percent from the previous 10 days and 16.2 percent year-on-year, showed data from the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.

As the domestic pork price is between two and three times that of imported pork, domestic state-owned and private companies are expanding or starting to import pork to reap high profits, Ma Wenfeng, a senior analyst at Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultancy, told the Global Times on Monday.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs' Deputy Minister Yu Kangzhen said in July that a total of 1.16 million pigs had been slaughtered since the outbreak of African swine fever in August 2018.

Currently, many domestic companies have restored production of live hogs, which are expected to be on sale after the 2020 Spring Festival, Ma said, adding that the pork price is likely to remain at a high level through the rest of 2019.

China imports pork mainly from European countries including Germany, Spain and Denmark. Ma forecast that the country may import more pork in the coming months.

Before the National Day holidays from October 1 to 7, China released 30,000 tons of frozen pork form the national reserve in three batches to relieve pork supply pressure.