Recovering catering industry, floods cause rise in pork prices in July

China’s pork prices rose 85.7 percent year-on-year in July due to recovering catering services which have stimulated the demand for pork, and floods in South China which has negatively impacted hog production and transport, an official said on Friday.

Skyrocketing pork prices drove up the country’s food prices by 13.2 percent year-onyear, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday.

“After local governments increased their hog production, breeding hog stocks rose every quarter, according to our investigation. But supply remains strained and the high prices may continue for awhile,” NBS spokesperson Fu Linghui told a press conference on Friday.

He added that, overall, the probability of pork prices climbing significantly higher is low.

Disrupted by the African swine fever, China’s hog production sharply dropped. Officials vowed in May to recover hog production to the level close to normal years at the end of this year.

In June, the breeding stock of fertile hogs grew 3.6 percent year-on-year, the first yearly growth since April 2018, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

China’s consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, rose 2.7 percent in July compared to a June reading of 2.5 percent, mainly driven by food price increases.

But stabilizing food prices relies on grain, Fu said, noting that China has achieved annual grain production above 650 billion kilograms for five consecutive years, laying the foundation to stabilize the country’s annual food prices.

The price of pork in South China’s Hainan Province rose to 43 yuan ($6.18) per kilogram on Friday, the highest in China, according to industry website soozhu.com.

The available hog price on Friday hit 37.21 yuan per kilogram, surging almost 80 percent year-on-year.