Pork Price Hike in China（在线收听）

Latest official figures show China's pork prices, a stable meat in the country and a key driver of inflation, has hit a new record high, rising 0.7 percent last week from the previous week.

The Ministry of Commerce said that was the fifth consecutive weekly rise in the price of pork.

Spikes in the cost of pork and other food items have constantly driven up Chinese consumer inflation, although the meat only accounts for 3 percent of China's consumer price index basket.

In August, pork prices rose some 46 percent from a year earlier, contributing 1.3 percentage points to the annual inflation of 6.2 percent.

For more about China's pork price hike, here CRI's Zeng Liang.

 
Pork has been an important element in China's food culture. There are almost half a billion pigs in China, one for every three people. But since last year, the price of pork has seen an abnormal surge.

Customers complain they're feeling the pinch.

"The price has risen too much, but pork is for sure a necessity in our daily diet. We cannot do without it. So now we consume less pork, and more chicken and duck as the alternatives."

"Last year, the least popular parts of pig cost only 7 yuan, but now the price is around 14."

The demand for pork has tripled amongst rural residents and doubled amongst urban dwellers over the last 20 years.

In China, most pigs are raised by small scale pig farms. These small scale farms do not have the capability or capacity to process their product from start to finish.

From these farms to supermarkets, pigs have to go through breeders, slaughterhouses and processors. Analysts believe the fragmentation has crippled the supply chain.

Li Guoqiang, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, says the old system has to change.

"Large scale farming is necessary, because the cost for small farms is too high. The information flow through the Internet can help to decrease the cost, but it is not sufficient. Other supporting measures like logistics are also needed."

While many countries have strategic oil and grain reserves, China also possesses a national pork reserve.

The Ministry of Commerce initiated a live hog reserve that began operating in 2007.

Authorities have said it planned to release part of the central government's 200,000-metric-tons of frozen pork into the market in an attempt to cap rising prices.

For CRI, I'm Zeng Liang.