China: pork prices rise again

In CHINA, the mood in the slaughter hog market improved somewhat as slaughter hog prices rose by about 43% compared to March, and thus again exceeded the break-even point, despite higher feed costs.

Since falling in March, slaughter pig prices in China have risen steadily and should now be profitable again, according to local analysts. The average producer price at the beginning of this week was 16.64 yuan per kg of live weight (2.36 euros); this is about 43% more than in mid-March and 25% more than exactly a year ago. Although the cost of feed in the People's Republic has also risen, according to experts, the break-even point is about 15 yuan/kg (2.13 euros) and has been exceeded.

Beijing Ministry of Agriculture's chief hog market monitoring analyst Wang Zuli told the press that according to the state monitoring system, the number of fattening pigs sold fell 0.2% m/m in May, coinciding with a resumption of consumption and pushing up prices. . More optimistic sentiment can also be seen in the number of sows kept, Wang says. At the end of May, they increased again for the first time in ten months, by 0.4% compared with April to 41.92 million units. This corresponds to 102.2% of the target value of at least 41 million sows.

National Development and Reform Commission spokesman Meng Wei expects pork prices to continue rising in the second half of 2022 amid insufficient supply and rising demand. He referred to developments in the futures market of the Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE). The settlement rate for live pigs for November futures there at the beginning of this week was CNY 19.97/kg (2.84 euros), while contracts with redemption in busy January were settled at CNY 20.64/kg (2.93 euros).