China News Service, March 18. According to the website of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, since this year, the stock of reproductive sows in the country has continued to grow, the basic production capacity has continued to recover, the number of live pigs for slaughter has increased significantly, and the price of pork has dropped significantly.
According to the monitoring of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the number of reproductive sows nationwide in January and February increased by 1.1% and 1.0%, respectively, and 35.0% and 34.1% year-on-year.
At the end of February, the national stock of reproductive sows was equivalent to 95.0% of the end of 2017, and the national stock of live pigs remained above 400 million.
In February, the slaughter volume of designated pig slaughter enterprises above designated size nationwide was 14.24 million heads, a year-on-year increase of 71.2%.
Data map: Citizens buy pork in supermarkets.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Yun
As the newly added live pig production capacity has been realized as pork production, the most tight period of pork supply has passed, and market prices have dropped significantly.
In the second week of March (March 8-14), the national market pork price was 46.26 yuan per kilogram, falling for 7 consecutive weeks, down 20.9% year-on-year, 7.96 yuan lower than the highest price in January and 13.38 lower than the highest price last year. yuan.
Taking into account factors such as the recovery of live pig production, the number of newborn piglets, and pig feed sales, it is expected that the number of live pigs for slaughter in the first half of this year will increase by about 65% year-on-year.
March-April is the low season for pork consumption, and pork market prices are expected to have room for decline.