Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua on Saturday underscored restoring hog production and ensuring the steady supply of livestock products by every means, reported Xinhua News Agency.
China must ensure stable pork supply in key periods of early 2020, including the Lunar New Year holidays in January and during the annual National People’s Congress in March, Xinhua cited Hu as saying at a meeting on animal husbandry on Saturday.
Millions of pigs have died or been culled due to the African swine fever outbreak in China and other Asian countries such as Vietnam. The disease has slashed China’s pig herd by as much as half since August 2018, US agribusiness firm Archer Daniels Midland Co said in November.
The ravaging of pig herds in the world’s top pork market helped to drive China’s consumer price index (CPI) up 3.8% year-on-year in October, the fastest increase in nearly eight years. Pork prices more than doubled in annual terms in October, according to China’s statistics bureau, accounting for over 60% of the CPI rise.