January 1, 2019

More frozen pork to be released from China's reserves

State-owned CCTV said the Ministry of Commerce has announced additional frozen pork to be released from government reserves due to the upcoming Lunar New Year celebrations, reported Reuters.

This is in addition to the already 100,000 tonnes of frozen pork already released from state reserves since mid-December this year.

Wang Bin, deputy director of the market operation department, Minister of Commerce said the government will continue to boost pork imports and add more import sources.

State reserves of frozen beef and mutton will also be released to areas where ethnic minorities live, according to the CCTV report.

Analysts estimate continued high demand for pork with China preparing to celebrate Lunar New Year at end January 2020. The holiday marks the highest consumption of the meat in the year.

China's imports of pork increased 57.9% to 1.7 million tonnes, compared to 2018.

The doubling of pork prices due to the meat shortage has caused consumer inflation in China to surge to its highest in eight years.

Pork prices in retail were at 50.99 RMB (~US$7.30; 1 RMB = US$0.14) per kilogramme on December 18, 2019, more than double when compared to a year ago.

-  Reuters