Around Winter Solstice, citizens in southern China will start making preserved meat. In holiday seasons including the New Year and the Lunar New Year, the consumption demand will increase, so the price of pork is likely to keep increasing mildly. As the number of reproductive sows on hand is still high, so the price of pigs is likely to drop again after the Chinese Spring Festival. Relevant authorities have suggested that farmers should keep the pig-raising restructuring, cull sows with low farrowing rate, so as to increase price comparison in pig production.

According to the Price Monitoring Center of NDRC on 2 December, the factory price of pigs averaged at 11.97 yuan/kg in large and medium cities, up by 4.5 per cent month-on-month, a rebound after 4 week’s of drop; the price comparison of pig feed was 6.37:1, up by 1.21 per cent month-on-month mildly, still higher than the breakeven point(6:1).

According to Department of Market Operation Regulation, MOFCOM, from 26 November to 2 December, the weekly-averaged factory price of carcass meat was 15.9 yuan/kg in pig slaughtering enterprises, up by 3.38 per cent compared to early November, a mild rise for 4 weeks in a row. According to Department of Animal Husbandry, MOA on 2 December, the price of piglets in 470 rural markets averaged at 17.35 yuan/kg, down by 1.03 per cent compared to early last month.

According to Department of Animal Husbandry, MOA, by the end of October, the number of pigs on hand was 469.21 million, slightly up for 4 months in a row, up by 0.87 per cent compared to the end of September. The number of reproductive sows on hand was 48.75 million, up by 0.73 per cent compared to the end of September. The ratio between the number of pigs on hand and the number of reproductive sows on hand was 9.62:1. According to Department of Market Operation Regulation, MOFCOM in October, the number of pigs slaughtered was 18.323 million, up by 0.89 per cent compared to September.