China’s pork output falls amid African swine fever epidemic
- Statistics bureau says 24.7 million tonnes were produced in first half of 2019, a drop of 5.5 per cent on same period last year
China’s pork output fell by less than expected in the first half as the country tackled a devastating disease outbreak, although official data released on Monday showed conflicting figures on the extent of the decline in the hog herd.
China produced 24.7 million tonnes of pork in the first six months of 2019, down 5.5 per cent from a year earlier, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, amid an epidemic of African swine fever.
The size of China’s hog herd – the world’s largest – shrank 15 per cent from a year ago to 347.61 million head, the bureau said, as pigs died from the virus and farmers decided against restocking.
But figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on Monday said the herd had shrunk 25.8 per cent in June from a year earlier, with the number of sows down 26.7 per cent. The ministry does not publish total number of pigs.
Analysts were surprised at the fall in pork output, which showed the pace of decline little changed from 5.2 per cent in the first quarter, even as swine fever spread to every province in China.