May 30, 2007

 

China's Cabinet voices concern over sharp rise in pork prices
 

 

China's leaders are trying to calm public concern over sharp price increases for pork, the country's staple meat, ordering local governments to ensure adequate supplies and help low-income families.

 

"Production and distribution of pork and its products relates to the lives of the masses and influences the overall situation," China's Cabinet, the General Office of the State Council, said in a statement carried on the front pages of official newspapers Wednesday.

 

High-level concern over the price increases was signalled by Premier Wen Jiabao's visits last weekend to pork producers and markets, when he pledged an official response would be forthcoming.

 

State media mentioned the possibility of activating a strategic frozen pork and live pig reserve which the government maintains to guard against severe shortages, although the Cabinet's circular, issued after a meeting Tuesday, did not directly address such a move.

 

Urban Chinese eat more pork than any other meat, an average of 19.2 kilograms/person in 2006, according to official statistics.

 

Prices of the meat rose by an average of 8.6 percent in April over the previous month, and were up 43.1 percent over April 2006, according to the Commerce Ministry.

 

Among measures ordered were subsidies for producers to encourage hog rearing and increase supply. Railways and other transport networks are also to give priority to deliveries of pork and live hogs, while governments are to increase food assistance to low-income families in line with the rise in pork prices, the circular said.

 

The document blamed the price increases on rising grain and feed costs, and an outbreak of blue ear disease, also called porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, which led to the slaughtering of herds and a sharp reduction in the numbers of piglets born.

 

"Appropriate increases in the price of live pigs and pork can be of benefit by boosting farming incomes," the circular said.

 

"However, if they rise too fast, that will cause increases in the price of other meats, poultry, eggs, and other foods and prices in the food and beverage industry, affecting the lives of low-income residents," it said.