Let them eat chicken? Why all options are on the table to solve China’s pork crisis
- Swine fever has swept through the country, destroying pig herds and raising concern among the leadership
- Authorities are trying to plug the gap with other supplies but fixing the problem will take long-term attention, observers say
On a windy autumn afternoon Beijing taxi driver Zhou Shidong walked into a tiny restaurant and ordered a bowl of luzhu.
The Beijing dish of pork intestine and lung has traditionally been a cheap source of meat protein for people in China but for Zhou it is becoming unaffordable.
“It’s crazy. The price has jumped from 18 yuan (US$2.56) a couple of months ago to 25 yuan [per bowl],” he grumbled. “And the two slices of pig’s head meat have disappeared!”
The restaurant owner was just as upset.
“Wholesale prices of the pork offal have doubled! Whom can I complain to?” he shouted. “Even with the [retail] price increase and cost-saving measures, we still can’t make ends meet. I’m afraid we’ll have to close the restaurant within months.”
Zhou and the restaurant owner are among the millions of Chinese feeling the pinch from a near 70 per cent increase in the price of pork across the country in the last year as African swine fever has cut a deadly swathe through the country’s pig stocks.
For China, it means much more than a dietary switch and plugging supplies with overseas sources – observers say it could become a source of economic uncertainty and deep public discontent, remedied only by an overhaul of the production system.