June 8, 2012

After experiencing prolonged declines for the past several months, China's pork prices are beginning to stabilise, according to statistics from the Xinhua News Agency.

Pork prices have seen a slower drop since mid-May and are showing signs of steadying, with a slight increase of 0.1% on Sunday (June 3) compared with Saturday (June 2), the statistics showed.

Prices have plunged since the Spring Festival holiday, as farmers increased their pig stocks last year when prices shot up, which drove up supplies and pushed prices down this year.

Price regulators announced last month that frozen pork will be purchased from the market to increase national reserves, stop pork prices from plunging excessively and protect farmers against market volatility.

Pork prices were the main driver of last year's sky-high consumer price index (CPI) figure of 5.4%, which was well above the government's control target of 4% for the year.