October 23, 2019

 

Higher pork prices force residents in Chinese county to look to dog meat as alternative
 

 

African swine fever has a significant impact on China's pork supply, and with tightening supply leading to higher prices of the meat, some locals have turned to an alternative: dog meat, the consumption of which is viewed globally with disdain.

 

According to a South China Morning Post report, higher prices has diminished the popularity of pork. Relating to a particular incident in a rural part of Wan'an county, Jiangxi province, the report revealed that an employee at a local restaurant had recommended dog meat to customers who felt it was not worthwhile to order pork.

 

The recent interest in consuming dog meat is blamed on China's pork shortage which is attributed to the ongoing ASF outbreak in the country. As the world's biggest producer and consumer of pork, China would have to rely on more imports to meet demand -but even that would not be enough to maintain supply.

 

As a sign of the declining affordability of the meat, the price of lean pork in a supermarket in Wa'an was  ¥72 (US$10.17) per kilogram while pork rib cost  ¥74 (US$10.46) a kilogram – more than double what was being charged a year ago and at least as high as prices in major cities like Shanghai and Beijing.

 

The supermarket also offered another alternative: rabbit meat selling at two dollars cheaper than usual at ¥43.6 (US$6.16) per kilogramme.

 

Wan'an has been officially declared as a "county of poverty," and inflated price of pork is a burden on the resident's dietary needs. Many pork vendors have also closed businesses as rural residents cannot afford to buy pork.

 

China's National Bureau of Statistics said the average price of pork nationwide shot up 69% in September from a year earlier, pushing the consumer price index up to 3%, the limit of Beijing's inflation tolerance for 2019. Prices are expected to rise further given the continued decline in the country's stock of pigs.

 

China's live hog population, which accounted for about half of the global total in 2018, had fallen 41.1% at the end of September from a year earlier, according to a survey of 400 counties by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. It is unclear how much further it will fall before it bottoms out.

 

The Chinese government has responded with emergency measures to support pig supply and is trying to help farmers to expand production while scrambling to import pork to bolster supply.

 

China's imports of pork rose 43.6% to 1.32 million tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, according to China's General Administration of Customs.

 

- South China Morning Post