January 25, 2008

China's Shanxi province sells 8.4 million heads of hog in 2007

According to data provided by Shanxi's Livestock Bureau, farmers in this northern Chinese province released 8.4 million heads of hogs in 2007, an increase of 2.3 percent on-year.

Market participants attributed the improvement in Shanxi's hog production to the series of government efforts to assist farmers in that region.

Some local farmers mentioned that from 2006 until early 2007, they had to incur losses of up to RMB100 per head of hog, and this had greatly dampened hog rearing interest.

For 2007, the provincial government provided sow subsidies in excess of RMB20 million. Under an insurance co-payment scheme, farmers had also received more than RMB10 million.

With these measures in place, hog production activities started to pick up. As of end 2007, Shanxi's hog inventories had risen by 3.7 percent on-year to 6.3 million heads.

RMB1=US$0.1385 (Jan 25)