Price of pork surged throughout China over a year

World Today

Pork is one of China’s favorite sources of meat. But since early March, more markets around the country have been raising their prices.

CCTV’s Wang Hui reports.

According to the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, the price of pork has been on the rise since early March with prices about 50 percent higher than the same time last year.

Chinese people have a special affinity for pork. A report from the Ministry of Agriculture revealed that it yielded two-thirds of all China’s meat in 2014. A year later, Chinese people ate 60 million tonnes (around 66000000 U.S. tons) of it, or about 42 kilograms (92 pounds) per person.

However, the country’s pork industry regularly experiences periods of boom and bust, with smallholder farmers quick to respond to any changes in cost. The price drop since late 2014 has driven many farmers out, which has had a knock-on effect on supply, driving the price up further.

“I think, this time, the price hike is decided by the demand and offer. The Chinese market is not so stable, as most of the Chinese farmers raise pigs individually, so they cannot sense the market fluctuations,” Ding Yifang, Senior Fellow of Institute of World Development said.

Ding said pork’s has a rather small contribution to the consumer price index and won’t affect the likelihood of inflation. Although the Chinese government has already committed to importing more agricultural products in the future, he doesn’t believe the price hike will have any influence on that decision.