SOURCE / ECONOMY
Chinese pig prices drop as production recovers
Published: Jun 07, 2021 11:51 PM
Pork Photo: VCG

Pork Photo: VCG


 
China's pig prices have been falling since the beginning of the year, which is expected to further reduce imports.

As of Saturday, the national pig price has dropped to 17 yuan ($2.6) per kilogram from a high of 37 yuan per kilogram at the beginning of the year, edging back to the price last seen in late 2019 when hog prices soared due to the outbreak of African swine fever.

Pig farmers who bought piglets at the beginning of the year have reportedly suffered heavy losses, with some losing as much as 1,000 yuan for each pig.

Li Yunlong, a pig farmer, told the Global Times that he lost almost 800 yuan when selling each pig.

"Compared with the beginning of the year, the cost of feed has increased by 30 percent, and the market price for pigs has dropped by 60 percent," Li said.

He currently has thousands of pigs and is adjusting his plans to try and minimize the losses.

Revenue from pig sales in May dropped from the previous month, according to data from major hog farms. Zhenghong Science said that it sold 8,500 herds of pigs (should that just be '8,500 pigs'? A herd is a large group of animals), down 41 percent from April. Another top pig producer, Muyuan Foods, saw their sales revenue drop to 6.780 billion yuan in May, down 14.44 percent on a monthly basis.

The fall in pig prices is due to the recovered production capacity, which has got back to the normal level in June, Li Guoxiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday.

He predicted that the hog import volume in the second half of the year will be greatly reduced as domestic pig prices return to normal and international pig prices rise.

"The domestic hog output is expected to meet the market demand in the second half of the year," he said.

Spain is the largest source of hog imports, with the import volume reaching 961,500 tons, accounting for 21.89 percent of China's total imports, which is followed by the US and Brazil, according to data from China's customs.

Global Times 


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