July 20, 2007

China utilises meat reserves in prolonged pork shortage

China has put a part of the national meat reserves on the market to cool prices down in a prolonged pork shortage which have pushed pork prices to historic levels.

Huang Hai, Assistant to the Minister of Commerce, said on Wednesday (July 18) that the Ministry of Commerce would continue to introduce meat reserves on the market if necessary.

The meat prices rose 3.5 percent between July 9th and July 15th, according to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Commerce.

However, the rate of increase has dropped. Pork and fresh beef prices rose 4.1 percent and 1.1 percent week-on-week.

The National Bureau of Statistics of China has said the country's consumption price index increased 3.2 percent on-year in the first half of 2007, with the growth rate up 1.9 percentage points on-year.

Food prices rose 7.6 percent with meat prices up 27.9 percent and poultry up 20.7 percent compared to the first half of last year.