China’s obese pigs fuel relentless slump in pork prices

Obese pigs in China are being blamed for worsening a sudden rout in the country’s pork prices.

Since late last year, farmers have been fattening hogs to almost double their normal weight – roughly the size of a pygmy hippo or a female polar bear – in hopes that the animals will generate higher returns should prices rebound.

Cao Tao, a pig trader in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, said many of the swine he is buying weigh more than 200kg, compared with their usual size of around 125kg. “Some farmers are holding onto their larger pigs on hopes of a price rebound,” he said.

Instead, Chinese wholesale pork prices have plunged more than 40 per cent since mid-January amid sluggish demand, increased imports and panic selling by farmers after fresh outbreaks of African swine fever. Muyuan Foods, the country’s biggest pig breeder, said this week that it was expecting a continued drop in domestic hog prices, with the slump not bottoming out until next year or even 2023.

Many farmers had fattened their pigs in anticipation of a recovery in pork prices, but the rout since February has triggered a sell-off of these large animals that may be delaying a rebound in prices, according to Lin Guofa, a senior analyst at consultancy Bric Agriculture Group.

“When these farms sell together, the sell-off causes an explosive price slump,” he said. Farms in the southwest and south are still holding a large number of “cow-sized” pigs, which could be sold as the weather warms and may push down prices for some time to come, Lin said.

China’s hog herd was devastated by African swine fever in 2018, and though numbers have recovered since then, a recent resurgence has driven up pork imports. The agriculture ministry said in April that the country’s pig herd may recover to usual levels by June or July, but the number of hogs available for slaughter may take another four months to get back to normal.