China's pork supply, demand to balance for the Chinese New Year

BEIJING - China's pork market may beat expectations with balanced supply and demand during the upcoming Chinese New Year, said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) Tuesday.

Increased pork import, stacked hogs to hit shelves and reserved pork released from government and commercial inventory will expand supply for the staple meat during the holidays, Wang Junxun, a senior official with the MARA, told a press conference.

Expected increase in poultry, beef and mutton output will help ensure meat supply during the peak season of meat consumption, said Wang.

The MARA statistics showed that hog prices had fallen for four weeks in a row by late November amid signs of hog production recovery nationwide.

The pig herd in 400 counties monitored by the MARA last month rebounded on a monthly basis for the first time since November 2018, while the number of breeding sows rose 4 percent month on month in November.

The pig herd in scale farms across the country and pig feed output both registered monthly upticks for three consecutive months in November.

China released a three-year action plan earlier this month to restore hog production in a bid to stabilize the supply of the country's staple meat, aiming to send its hog production capacity to normal levels in 2021.