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BEIJING, April 18 (Reuters) - China's first-quarter pork
output rose 1.9% from a year earlier to 15.9 million tonnes, the
highest quarter in five years, after farmers sold off pigs
because of a surge in disease outbreaks.
A spike in infections of African swine fever earlier this
year forced many farms in the world's top pork producer to cull
pigs, pushing up slaughter numbers.
China slaughtered 198.99 million hogs in the quarter, up
1.7% from the same period a year earlier, data from the National
Bureau of Statistics showed on Tuesday.
Pork output was the highest since the fourth quarter of
2017.
The pig herd, though 2% higher than the same period a year
earlier, contracted from the prior quarter's 452.56 million
heads to 430.94 million, the data also showed.
"It's not a big surprise. In Q1 there were a lot of
liquidations due to disease," said Pan Chenjun, senior analyst
at Rabobank.
Major hog producer New Hope Liuhe told investors
in late March that a "relatively large" number of sows in
northern China's Henan and other provinces had been culled since
December, and that the mortality rate of weaned piglets also
increased in the first quarter.
Pork output also rose after many farmers expected a recovery
in demand during the fourth quarter of 2022 and raised hogs to
heavier weights to benefit from anticipated high prices.
When demand slumped due to a surge in COVID-19 cases,
farmers rushed to offload pigs ahead of the Lunar New Year
festival in late January, normally the peak demand season.
Hog prices are hovering at low levels since the start of the
year under pressure from the high slaughter volume. They fell
further this month, reaching 14.6 yuan ($2.12) per kg in the
major producing province of Henan this week. Farmers there are losing about 176 yuan per head, and prices
may not pick up until the end of the second quarter or third
quarter, said Pan. ($1 = 6.8742 Chinese yuan renminbi)
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Pork output in the world's top producer and consumer ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
(Reporting by Qin Ningwei and Dominique Patton; Editing by Tom
Hogue and Christopher Cushing)
