China’s pork price rose 85.7 percent year-on-year in July due to recovering catering services which have stimulated the demand for pork, and flooding in South China which has negatively impacted hog production and transport, an official said on Friday.
The skyrocketing pork price drove up the country’s food price by 13.2 percent year-on-year, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday.
“After local governments increased their hog production capacities, breeding hog stocks rose quarter by quarter, according to our investigation. But the supply side remains strained and the high price may continue for a while,” NBS spokesperson Fu Linghui told a press conference on Friday, adding that overall, the probability of the pork price climbing significantly higher is low.
Flooding in South China has also impacted vegetable production and transport, Fu said.
China’s consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, rose 2.7 percent in July compared with a June reading of 2.5 percent, mainly driven by the food price increases.
But stabilizing the food price relies on grain, he said, noting that China has achieved annual grain production above 1.3 trillion jin (650 billion kilograms) for five consecutive years, laying the foundation to stabilize the country’s annual food price.
On Thursday, China’s average pork price was 37.18 yuan ($5.35) per kilo, according to industry website soozhu.com, an increase of 81 percent year-on-year.
A woman buys pork at a supermarket in Nanchang, east China’s Jiangxi Province, Dec. 22, 2019. Local authorities has released on Sunday more frozen pork reserves to ensure market supply for the upcoming holidays and to keep the pork price stable. The price is 43.2 yuan (about 6.2 U.S. dollars) per kg. (Xinhua/Peng Zhaozhi)
