Many private pig farmers have been getting out of the business, and large-scale raisers are unable to meet demand.

A lack of supply was an important factor in the price rises, CBN Daily quoted analysts as saying.

Pork prices in July were almost 57 per cent higher than a year earlier, helping push the consumer price index to a 37-month high of 6.5 per cent.

Prices of pork will continue to rise till the end of the year due to tight supply and higher feed costs, a senior industry official said on 8 September.

"Corn prices have continued to rise over the past few months so that will increase production cost for farmers," Qiao Yufeng, vice president of the China Animal Husbandry Association, told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference.

Mr Yufeng added that supply of live hogs would see a meaningful increase only in the first half of next year.