Source: Reuters
China’s first-quarter pork output rose 1.9% from a year earlier to 15.9 million tonnes, data showed on Tuesday, hitting the highest for a quarter since the fourth quarter of 2017.
The large production by the world’s top pork producer came after many farmers expected a recovery in demand during the fourth quarter of 2022 and raised hogs to heavier weights to benefit from anticipated high prices.
When demand slumped due to a surge in COVID-19 cases, farmers rushed to offload pigs ahead of the Lunar New Year festival in late January, normally the peak demand season.
A spike in infections with African swine fever early this year has also forced many farms to cull pigs, further pushing up slaughter numbers.
China slaughtered 198.99 million hogs in the quarter, up 1.7% from the same period a year earlier, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.
The pig herd also increased by 2% compared with the same period a year earlier to 430.94 million, the data showed.
