Official: Pork supply to recover in 6 months

[Shelly]

CHINA'S pork supply will be stable in the second quarter of next year as it takes about 18 months to breed more pigs, a top economic planning official said today.
"It takes about 18 months to breed a piglet to a sow, which in turn bears more piglets for sale," said Bi Jingquan, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission.
"Supply of pork has increased recently and the price has stabilized, but short-term fluctuation is still inevitable, while the possibility of another significant price hike is slim," he said.
The demand may rise during the upcoming National Day holiday and the Mid-Autumn Festival, Bi said.
However, the sufficient supply of non-staple food, such as beef, mutton and eggs, can help stem the pork prices from surging, Bi said.
As the biggest pork producer in the world, China is not likely to import lots of pork from other countries because no country can fulfill China's demand, Bi said.
Bi also said China's inflation growth may not be controlled within the targeted three percent despite the measures to stabilize pork prices.
"The three-percent target is only a guideline, and the growth may be above or below the target," Bi said.
Surging food prices drove China's consumer price index up by 5.6 percent in July from a year earlier, the highest since February 1997.
Wholesale pork prices almost doubled in the first seven months of this year due to short supplies, mounting production costs and the outbreak of blue-ear disease.
Blue-ear disease has killed more than one million pigs in China since May 2006, mostly in the south.
Agriculture Ministry spokesman Xue Liang said in Beijing last month that the number of pigs infected with blue-ear disease fell in July, when 13,000 pigs died from the disease, down more than 36 percent from the previous month.
The disease is named for the symptom infected piglets can show. It is not a threat to humans, but kills young pigs and can cause infertility in sows.
http://news.tootoo.com/

[Shelly]

pork in china now is too expensive . it is profitable for chinese framers.

[Shelly]

expensive pork in china is bad news for the city citizens, good for the peasants. that answers the saying: everything has two coins!

[RebateFX]

Time to look at Frozen Pork Bellies futures?