Overview of the Chinese pork market

Slaughtering of pigs in the first 6 months of 2013 reached 342.11 million head, an increase of 1.1 percent compared with the first six months of 2012.

total in 2012 was sent to the slaughterhouse 714,270,000 Goals - 10.4 percent more than in the previous month and 0.4 percent more than in June 2012 - said Meatinfo with reference to a consulting company "Genesis . " In June, the average price of pork was 22.81 yuan / kg (3.72 $ / kg), which is 6.2 percent higher than the previous month and 0.1 percent more than last year.

Since the end of January 2013 and for 15 consecutive weeks the price of live pigs in China decreased by 27.4%. Then, for seven weeks, starting from the third week of May, the price increased by 13.4%. Pork prices since the second week of February, were down 20.5% for 14 consecutive weeks. From the fourth week of May, prices jumped by 8,3%.

ratio of the price of hogs and grain prices in China in June 2013 was 5.76:1, which is 0.48 points higher than the monthly average for May 2013. The level of the ratio 6.00:1 is the break-even level. During the second week of July, it reached the level of 5.99:1, and thus reached the break-even point.

Market prices of pigs has increased since May 10, when the market price was 12.66 yuan / kg (2.06 $ / kg) d 10 July, when the price was 14.22 yuan / kg (2.32 $ / kg). That is, the market price rose by 12.08 per cent.

April 18, 2013 the Department of National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) purchased 75,000 tons of pork, and on May 9 - 93 700 tons. Department announced on May 22 that the national plans to control the market gradually achieve success as hog prices were up in three weeks. Part of the NDRC plan includes an early warning of market prices of live pigs to provide timely information to farmers so that they can adapt their production to cyclical prices in the market. In addition, NDRC will continue to buy and store frozen pork in reserve to smooth out price fluctuations.

The share of pork accounts for about one third of the cost of living in China or in other words, about 8 to 10 percent of the Consumer Price Index as a whole. Thus, bearing in mind these calculations, the price of pork in the entire CPI ranged from 2.5 to 3 percent. This level is significantly higher than in the world's major pork producing and consuming countries such as Japan (0.66%), USA (0.34%) and Germany (0,71%).

In the first half of 2013, total production of pork was 26.14 million tons, up 1% compared to the same period in 2012.

Also in 2012, China imported about 522,000 tons of pork (11.7 per cent compared to 2011), totaling U.S. $ 980 million (15.7 per cent compared to 2011) at an average price of $ 1,877.40 / ton (3.6 percent compared to last year). The EU has set in China 269,000 tons of pork (51.4 percent of total exports), United States - 187,000 tonnes (26.1 per cent compared to 2011), Canada 53000 tonnes (7.5 per cent compared to 2011) .