Pork in 2020 holidays expected to be abundant

Except for some inland areas where people eat more beef and mutton in those areas because of religious beliefs and local customs, people who live in most other provinces eat pork as their major source of meat.

When Chinese prepare special goods for their most important holiday in Spring Festival, many of the people, especially those who live in southern China, like to buy marinated pork, sausages and cured meat, or cook it themselves.

For residents living in northern China, they have a custom of cooking dumplings or steamed stuffed buns for the festival, and pork acts as a necessary ingredient. The Spring Festival falls on Jan 25 in 2020.

Daoxiangcun, a time-honored food brand that has been a favorite of Beijing residents, sells various freshly made seasonal delicacies and pastries. A consumer surnamed Zhang intended to buy a small portion of sweet and sour spare ribs in cold dishes at a Daoxiangcun store. But it costs 70 yuan per 500g. The consumer said it was still too expensive, and she would not buy much at this time.

In comparison, beef is the favorite meat of Americans, consumed either through burgers or steaks. Beef accounts for 60 percent of the total meat consumption in the United States and pork's share is less than 40 percent.

The China unit of US supermarket chain Walmart said it has made full preparations to ensure the supply of fresh and safe pork to meet the strong demand from Chinese consumers during the New Year and the Spring Festival holiday period.

"We have become a strategic partner with a few major domestic pork retailers such as Henan Shuanghui Investment and Development Co and Jinluo Group to ensure the stable supply of pork in China. Besides, we have increased the portion of imported pork to China, utilizing our global supply resources," said the China unit of the world's largest chain retailer.

In May, Walmart sent a team to visit pig-breeding farms in Denmark. Since then, it started to import a large volume of Denmark pork to its supermarkets in China, in addition to introducing more kinds of imported poultry, mutton and beef.

In November, Walmart launched a hotpot promotional event at its stores in China, and the event has helped to drive nearly 40 percent of sales growth of its hotpot-related food ingredients.

Sales of poultry surged almost 50 percent year-on-year, and sales of pork and beef netted double-digit growth year-on-year, the company said. The company did not disclose specific numbers though.

Major domestic pork breeders have been increasing their production of pork. The government will further increase the financial support of related projects from the central budget, the National Development and Reform Commission said in late December.

Producers should continue to increase the production volume of other kinds of meat, and the substitution of pork by poultry and seafood has jumped sharply. In addition, China will further boost its import of pork and other meats like beef to increase the supply during the festive period, the NDRC said.

China imported 1.58 million tons of pork from global markets in the first 10 months of 2019, mainly from European countries such as Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, France, the United Kingdom, along with South America and the United States, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.

The NDRC said the central government will also urge local governments to launch relevant linkage mechanisms based on price changes, and distribute enough subsidies to impoverished residents.