National Development and Reform Commission: Heavy rains in Henan will not cause large fluctuations in food prices

  On August 17, the National Development and Reform Commission held a regular press conference in August. Meng Wei, deputy director of the Political Research Office of the National Development and Reform Commission and spokesman of the Commission, responded to hot topics such as food production and pork prices.

  Prevent big fluctuations in pork prices

  Speaking of pork prices, Meng Wei said yesterday that since July, the National Development and Reform Commission and relevant departments have listed a total of 50,000 tons of central frozen pork reserves for purchasing and storing, and guiding local governments to synchronize purchasing and storage to stabilize market expectations.

At present, the trend of rapid decline in live pig prices has been effectively curbed, and live pig prices have rebounded significantly.

  Meng Wei said that at present, the price of live pigs has rebounded by more than 15% from the previous low, and the price of pigs and food has also rebounded rapidly after a short period of time below 5:1. From August 9th to 15th, it has risen to 5.71:1.

Although the decline in the price of live pigs in the early stage has had a certain impact on the profitability of breeding, the overall recovery of domestic pig production capacity is good.

  According to monitoring, as of the end of July, the country's live pig stock increased by 31.2% year-on-year, of which the stock of breeding sows increased by 24.5% year-on-year, which has returned to the level of normal years.

In the coming period, as consumption becomes prosperous, pig farming profits may gradually pick up, which will boost the enthusiasm of farms and farmers to a certain extent.

  Meng Wei revealed that in the follow-up, the National Development and Reform Commission will continue to track changes in the stocks of live pigs and reproductive sows and pork price trends, give timely warnings, and actively guide farmers to rationally arrange production, and strengthen the market in accordance with the provisions of the pork market to ensure supply and price stability. Adjust to prevent the prices of live pigs and pork from rising and falling sharply.

  Food prices will not rise sharply

  Henan, as a major province in my country's food production, has recently been hit by heavy rains. Meng Wei responded that food prices will not rise sharply due to Henan's heavy rains.

  According to Meng Wei, data show that more than 16 million mu of crops have been affected in Henan Province, and overall, the impact on national food production is limited.

  She emphasized that grain prices will not fluctuate sharply. “The reason for saying so depends on these factors: In recent years, my country’s grain crops have been harvested year after year, the national grain reserves are abundant, the purchasing, storage, and transportation capabilities have increased, and the grain production, supply, storage, and sales system With the increasing improvement, the market supply is guaranteed, and the price of food will not rise sharply due to the heavy rain disaster. At present, the supply of agricultural and sideline food such as grain, oil and meat in the disaster-stricken areas in Henan is sufficient and the price is stable. Vegetable prices rose slightly, but the increase was within the normal fluctuation range."

  Meng Wei pointed out that in the next step, the National Development and Reform Commission will continue to pay close attention to the follow-up impact of the disaster, strengthen monitoring of the production situation and market supply of agricultural products in the disaster-stricken areas, and guide and support local governments to do a good job in post-disaster replanting and replanting to reduce disaster losses. Ensure the stable supply of grain and other important agricultural products.

  Reserve a total of 270,000 tons of copper, aluminum and zinc

  For a period of time, the National Development and Reform Commission has organized and completed the national reserve of various raw materials.

Regarding how the Development and Reform Commission will respond to commodity price fluctuations in the future, Meng Wei said that the two rounds of raw material reserves have basically achieved the expected goal, and a variety of measures will be taken in the next step to ensure the supply of bulk commodities and stabilize prices. .

  Meng Wei introduced that in accordance with the deployment of the State Council's executive meeting on ensuring the supply of bulk commodities and stabilizing prices, the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Bureau of Grain and Material Reserves respectively invested two batches of national reserves of copper, aluminum and zinc, totaling 270,000 tons.

  Meng Wei said that from the market response, related companies actively participated in the bidding, and the transaction price was lower than the market price.

There are three outstanding features of the national reserve release: First, the release method is divided into batches, irregular, and non-quantitative. This will help to flexibly carry out market adjustments according to changes in supply and demand situations, market expectations, and corporate needs, and improve expected guidance. Effect.

The second is to target processing and manufacturing enterprises, and eliminate intermediate links such as traders as much as possible to prevent hoarding and allow entities to directly obtain benefits.

The third is to adopt open online bidding, and to prefer small and medium-sized enterprises as far as possible in terms of rules, which is conducive to the full participation of small and medium-sized processing enterprises in the manufacturing industry and provides them with a window of opportunity to replenish inventory.

  Text/Reporter Xiong Yingqi