Devious swines

Source:Global Times Published: 2014-4-3 22:08:02

Men work at a slaughterhouse in Dongguan, South China's Guangdong Province in this file photo. Photo: CFP



Pork lovers in southern areas of China may not know it, but there's a good chance they have been eating meat smuggled in from Vietnam, a trade that is still rampant, according to a report released over the weekend.

The number of pigs smuggled into South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region from Vietnam is estimated to be more than 600,000 per annum, animal husbandry industry portal xinm123.com reported Saturday.

Geographically close to Vietnam, Guangxi has for years served as a pig trading hub and it still does, despite a ban on live pig imports from Vietnam imposed in 2003 by the Ministry of Agriculture because of concerns about foot-and-mouth disease.

Of the autonomous region's counties and towns that are closest to Vietnam, Longzhou county, Aidian town and Dongxing, a county-level city, were named as the places where pig smuggling from across the border was most rampant.

The number of pigs illegally transferred to the three places from Vietnam is about 2,000 each day, said the report.

Lucrative business

Pigs raised in Vietnam are generally smaller than those in China, so the smuggled pigs are mostly transported to markets in South China's Guangdong Province, where suckling pigs are favored in local cuisine, according to the report.

The smuggling chain consists of Vietnamese suppliers, Chinese traders and middlemen who help bridge the communications gap between participants from both sides.

The general process involves Chinese clients such as slaughterhouses contacting a trader to make an order. The trader then reaches out to suppliers in Vietnam by way of a liaison to negotiate the terms of the deal.

After the trader agrees on terms with the supplier, the deal goes into effect and the pigs are smuggled across the border, the report disclosed.

Price differences between the two countries are one of the main reasons for the rampant pig smuggling.

Vietnamese hogs are about 2 yuan ($0.32) cheaper per kilogram than Chinese pigs, making smuggling a lucrative trade, the report said.

However, the smuggled pigs do not go through the inspection and quarantine process set by relevant official departments, so they pose potential threats to consumer safety, as well as posing a problem for domestic pig farmers.

The amount of smuggled pigs is still quite small compared to the nation's pork production as a whole, Ma Wenfeng, a senior analyst at Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultant, told the Global Times on Monday.

The country's pork production saw an increase of 2.8 percent year-on-year in 2013 to reach 54.93 million tons, according to figures released in February by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

But smuggling adds to the burden for pig farmers, who are already struggling amid a supply glut and rising imports of pork from overseas markets, Ma noted.

Amid growing concerns over pig smuggling, authorities in Mao­ming, Guangdong Province initiated a special campaign from Thursday to April 16 to crack down on pig smuggling from Vietnam, news portal chinanews.com reported on Thursday.

Price pressure

The price of pork - which has a significant influence on the consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of the country's inflation - fell by 8.7 percent year-on-year in February, causing the overall CPI to fall by 0.29 percentage points, according to data announced by the NBS on March 9. The February CPI slid to a 13-month low of 2 percent.

Current pork prices are 14.38 percent lower than the same time last year, China National Radio (CNR) reported Sunday, citing data from Beijing Xinfadi, the largest farm produce wholesale market in the capital city.

The falling prices have resulted in pig farmers making the heaviest losses they have seen in 15 years, the CNR report said, adding that the country currently has pork oversupply amounting to 510,000 tons. 

Smaller pig farmers are expected to go out of business amid the price slump, Wuhan-based Chutian Metropolis Daily reported on March 22, citing Gao Changming, head of the animal husbandry and veterinary bureau in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province.

The report quoted unnamed husbandry experts as saying that China should consider placing controls on imports of pork and increasing efforts to combat pig smuggling in order to support the domestic pig farming sector.

China's pork imports rose by 11.7 percent in 2013 to 584,000 tons, according to figures released in January by the Ministry of Agriculture.

In the latest sign of increasing pork imports, data released on March 24 by the British Food and Drink Federation  showed that the UK's pork exports to China rose by a massive 92 percent year-on-year in 2013, pushing its total food and non-alcoholic drink exports to China up 82 percent to a value of 201 million pounds ($334.95 million). 

Pork imports were spurred by the fact that prices of US products, the main source of China's imported pork, used to be lower than for Chinese pork. But domestic prices have now fallen below those of US imports, said Ma at Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultant.

Meanwhile, the domestic pig farming sector is becoming more integrated into the global market, he noted, as shown by the purchase in September 2013 of US-based Smithfield Foods by Chinese meat processing company WH Group, formerly known as Shuang­hui International Holdings.

This means that pig farmers will be increasingly exposed to price fluctuations and risks, so the Chinese government should set up a mechanism offering direct subsides to farmers to bolster the sector, Ma said.

Global Times

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