China’s obese pigs fuel relentless slump in pork prices
- Sluggish demand, increased imports and panic selling by farmers after fresh outbreaks of African swine fever have combined to see wholesale pork prices plunge in China
- Many farmers had fattened their pigs in anticipation of a recovery in pork prices, but a rout since February has triggered a sell-off
Obese pigs in China are being blamed for worsening a sudden rout in the country’s pork prices.
Since late last year, farmers have been fattening hogs to almost double their normal weight – roughly the size of a pygmy hippo or a female polar bear – in hopes that the animals will generate higher returns should prices rebound.
Cao Tao, a pig trader in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, said many of the swine he is buying weigh more than 200kg, compared with their usual size of around 125kg. “Some farmers are holding onto their larger pigs on hopes of a price rebound,” he said.
Instead, Chinese wholesale pork prices have plunged more than 40 per cent since mid-January amid sluggish demand, increased imports and panic selling by farmers after fresh outbreaks of African swine fever. Muyuan Foods, the country’s biggest pig breeder, said this week that it was expecting a continued drop in domestic hog prices, with the slump not bottoming out until next year or even 2023.
Many farmers had fattened their pigs in anticipation of a recovery in pork prices, but the rout since February has triggered a sell-off of these large animals that may be delaying a rebound in prices, according to Lin Guofa, a senior analyst at consultancy Bric Agriculture Group.
