China's live pig production is growing steadily due to state policy support and rising market demand.

In the first half of 2008, China's consumer price index (CPI) increased 7.9 percent, of which food prices such as pork contributed 6.64 percent. To counter that, the State Council issued policies to support the production of live pig, dairy and eggs, as well as to heighten farmers' enthusiasm in breeding culture.

Monitoring data on 20 major live pig breeding provinces said the number of live pigs in August climbed 10.6 percent on-year, while slaughtered pigs jumped 16.4 percent.

However, prices of piglets and pigs have accumulative drops of 23.1 percent and 16.4 percent respectively since April. Pork prices in bazaars have also declined 13.1 percent over the past seven months.