China insured 44.5 percent of sows nationwide by Nov. 23 as a
way to ease a pork shortage and curb the rising price of China's
staple meat, according to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission
(CIRC).
The CIRC said more than 21.24 million sows have been covered,
with insurance fees totaling 21.6 billion yuan (2.9 billion U.S.
dollars).
The top insurance regulator authorized five domestic insurers
last August to undertake a pilot sow insurance scheme for pig
breeders in response to the short supply of pork fueled by
feedstuff price hikes and outbreaks of the blue-ear pig
disease.
The insurance covers losses from blue-ear disease and natural
disasters such as floods, fires, typhoons and other epidemics.
The price of pork, which almost doubled this year before
starting to decline in mid-August, rebounded 54.9 percent in
October, according to figures from the National Bureau of
Statistics.
Analysts say the higher pork and food prices pushed up the
consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, to 6.5
percent year-on-year in October, the same as in August, when the
CPI rise reached an 11-year monthly record.
"As winter sets in, demand for pork and other food products is
increasing by a large margin, so food prices went up in October,"
said Yao Jingyuan, chief economist with the NBS.
Bi Jingquan, vice minister of the National Development and
Reform Commission said in September that the short supply of
China's live pig would not change "fundamentally" until the second
quarter next year.
(Xinhua News Agency December 2, 2007)
