Authorities in Shenzhen of Guangdong Province will not utilize
the city's 2,000-ton "meat reserve" although pork prices in the
city are expected to remain high for at least another three months,
yesterday's Daily Sunshine reported.
Pork prices will begin to drop after October, officials with the
municipal bureau of trade and industry were quoted by the Daily
Sunshine report as saying. The officials vowed to speed up
construction of four modern slaughterhouses in Shenzhen and take
measures to ensure almost all pigs come from government-approved
pig farms.
The city has seen increases in the prices of both fresh pork and
frozen pork. Frozen pork is being sold at Buji Farm Produce
Wholesale Market for 8,000 yuan (US$1,052.63) a ton, an increase of
30 percent since last month, the report said.
To cope with the shortage in pork, the city authorities have
started to ship more frozen pork from southwest China's Sichuan
Province this month. At present, some 100 tons of frozen pork are
being transported by train from Sichuan to Shenzhen daily.
The price surge in Shenzhen has been mainly caused by an
outbreak of deadly blue ear disease among pigs in Hunan Province
since spring this year, said Li Shun, a pork wholesaler in Longgang
District. Most pigs sold for slaughter in Shenzhen are supplied by
pig farms in Jiangxi and Hunan provinces.
Earlier media reports also blamed the soaring pork prices on a
cyclical shortage of stock and higher cost for feed.
(Shenzhen Daily July 18, 2007)