June 2, 2008

Earthquake to slow China's Sichuan hog output by 9 percent 

Sichuan, China's biggest pork producing province, will likely see a 9 percent  decline in pork output this year due to the May 12 earthquake which killed millions of livestock, the province's Livestock and Food Bureau said Friday ( May 30, 2008).

The earthquake has killed 3.84 million hogs and created a feedmeal shortage, the bureau said in a statement published on its Web site.

Pork output may decline by 700,000 tonnes to around 6.7 million tonnes in 2008 and the overall hog population will fall by almost 10 million, it said.