April 20, 2023

 

China's pork production in Q1 2023 highest in five years

 

China's first-quarter pork output this year increased 1.9% year-on-year to 15.9 million tonnes, the highest quarter in five years, as farmers sold swine due to an increase in disease outbreaks, Financial Post reported.

 

A spike in African swine fever (ASF) infections earlier this year forced many farms in the world's top pork producer to cull swine, increasing slaughter numbers.

 

China slaughtered 198.99 million swine in the quarter, up 1.7% from the same period a year ago, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics data released on Tuesday.

 

Pork production was the highest since the fourth quarter of 2017.

 

China's swine herd shrank from 452.56 million heads in the previous quarter to 430.94 million in the current quarter, despite being 2% higher than the same period last year, the data showed.

 

New Hope Liuhe, a major Chinese swine producer, told investors in late March that a "relatively large" number of sows had been culled in northern China's Henan and other provinces since December, and that the mortality rate of weaned piglets had also increased in the first quarter.

 

Pork output also increased after many farmers anticipated a recovery in demand during the fourth quarter of 2022 and raised swine to heavier weights to capitalise on expected high prices.

 

When demand fell due to an increase in COVID-19 cases, farmers rushed to sell swine before the Lunar New Year festival in late January, which is normally the peak demand season.

 

Swine prices have been hovering at low levels since the beginning of the year, owing to the high slaughter volume. They fell even further this month, reaching CNY 14.6 (~US$2.12; CNY 1 = US$0.15) per kg this week in the major producing province of Henan.

 

Pan Chenjun, senior analyst at Rabobank, said Chinese swine farmers are losing about CNY 176 (~US$25.56) per head, and prices may not recover until the end of the second or third quarter.

 

-      Financial Post