December 3, 2007

China insures 45 percent of sows to ease pork shortage 

China has insured 44.5 percent of sows nationwide to avert future pork shortages and curb the rising prices of China's staple meat.

China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) reported more than 21.24 million sows covered, with insurance fees amounting to US$2.9 billion.

The country's top insurance regulator authorised five domestic insurers last August to undertake a pilot sow insurance scheme in response to a pork shortage caused partly by feed price hikes and blue-ear pig disease outbreaks.

The insurance covers losses from blue-ear disease and natural disasters such as floods, fires, typhoons and other epidemics.

The price of pork, which almost doubled this year before starting to decline in mid-August, rebounded 54.9 percent in October, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Escalating pork and food prices pushed up the consumer price index (CPI) to 6.5 percent year-on-year in October, the same as in August, when the CPI reached an 11-year monthly record.

Yao Jingyuan, chief economist, said pork demand is expected to rise sharply as winter sets in.

Bi Jingquan, vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, previously said China's current shortage of live pigs would persist until the second quarter of 2008.