Official backs pig farmers' idea for special zone in Guangdong

A senior health official yesterday backed a proposal by local pig farmers for a special zone in Guangdong to raise the animals and create an alternative source of live pigs for Hong Kong.

Mainland approval would break a duopoly that limits the supply of pigs to Hong Kong to two mainland-funded companies - Ng Fung Hong and Guangnan Hong.

Speaking after a meeting with pig farmers, Deputy Secretary for Food and Health Cheuk Wing-hing said the government would consider the idea provided it did not violate mainland policy. He said the government would follow up on the issue but did not give a timetable for discussions with mainland authorities.

Kwan Wing-kai, vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Agriculture Special Zone Development Association, said local pig farmers were operating six agricultural zones in Guangdong's Shaoguan city with a capacity to raise up to a million pigs. But these were for the mainland market.

Local pork traders have threatened a strike and are mobilising trucks to protest at the China Resources Building in Wan Chai, where Ng Fung Hong's headquarters is located, if authorities fail to resolve the shortage of live pigs from the mainland within a week.

Legislator Albert Chan Wai-yip, who joined the meeting, said allowing local pig farmers to set up an agricultural area on the mainland would help break the existing duopoly.