China encourages Pig farmers to reduce capacity after price slump
BEIJING: China will “guide” farmers to reduce pig production capacity as it steps up regulation of the industry, the agriculture ministry said on Tuesday (Jan 23), after an aggressive expansion drive led to an oversupply of pigs and heavy losses.
Big agribusinesses in the world’s top pork producer have modernised farms and expanded pig herds so rapidly in recent years that a downturn in demand led to plummeting pig prices, mounting losses, and rising debt last year.
Farmers lost an average of 76 yuan (US$10.60) per pig in 2023, Lei Liugong, director of market and information technology at the ministry, said in a press briefing.
As a result, struggling producers sped up slaughter of pigs late last year to cut their losses, raising the country’s pork production to a nine-year high of 57.94 million metric tonnes.
Lei said the sow herd at end-December was down 2.5 million heads from a year ago to 41.42 million head.
But herd numbers are still high and thus destocking will continue in the next one to two months, continuing to depress prices, he said.
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