A woman browses through the fresh meat section at a supermarket in Beijing on Friday. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said pork prices in the second week of March have declined for seven consecutive weeks. Photo: cnsphoto

Hog prices are expected to decline this week as processing numbers in some areas increase, China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said on Monday.

According to the NDRC, the country’s top economic planner, for the week ending October 26, domestic hog prices were slightly higher at the beginning, pulled up by improving farm gate sentiment. However, as consumers have been reducing consumption due to unusually high prices, the trend seems set to change with the pork processing side releasing more supply into the market. 

Based on the current price and cost, the average profit of hog farming is expected to reach 1,157.90 yuan ($159.3) per head, the NDRC said.

Boosted by the continuous increase in prices, four out of five domestic major listed pig enterprises in the third quarter this year achieved profitability, with the total revenue of the five firms reaching 105.13 billion yuan, domestic media outlet thepaper.cn reported.

Among the five pig enterprises, the revenue of New Hope Group exceeded 38 billion yuan, an increase of 15.57 percent year-on-year; and revenue of another pig firm Muyuanfoods jumped 147.6 percent year-on-year to 36.5 billion yuan.

In order to stabilize rapidly rising pork prices, the NDRC summoned major domestic hog producers on October 20, requiring them to maintain the release speed of live hogs to market and avoid price speculation.

The authority also announced that the country will release the sixth round of frozen pork to the market and guide localities to release pork reserves, in a bid to further ensure the market supply of the essential products.

Global Times