China's pig inventories at higher than normal level by end-March

By the end of March, China's pig inventories reached 441 million, edging down 0.5% from a month earlier but still 7.6% higher than the normal level of 410 million, according to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture.

Purchase prices of pig in China averaged at RMB9.79/kg in the April 5-11 period, down 20.8% from this year's beginning and 8% from the same period of last year, a survey by the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) showed.

Meanwhile, average wholesale prices of pork in major large and medium cities held at RMB14.55/kg in that period, down 6.3% on-year.

Zhu Xiaoliang, director of Market Operation Department under the MoC, said that the current pig inventories are still at a high level.

In March, pork sales in the country's thousands of large retail stores rose 5.1% on-year, with the growth rate sliding 8.6 percentage points from that in the first two months. The March-August period is usually the slack season for pork product consumption, and pork demand in the period only accounts for about 42% of a year's total, noted Zhu.

Affected by pig price fall and corn price rise, the price ratio between pigs and grain dropped persistently, which caused profit slump in pig production. According to a survey by the National Development and Reform Commission, the price ratio between pigs and grain stood at 4.99:1 on April 7, keeping at a level lower than the breakeven point of 6:1 for ten successive weeks.