China’s live hog prices have been running at low levels and in the week of June 26 – 30, the average live hog to feed ratio was below 5:1, entering the first-level warnings zone for excessive declines of hog prices, said the National Development and Reform Commission, the top economic planner.
The NDRC will launch this year’s second round pork purchase for the state reserves in a move to push live hog prices to a reasonable range as soon as possible, it said.
China’s live hog to feed price ratio stood at 4.07 as of June 28, down 1.93% from the previous week, according to data jointly released by the NDRC and commodity consultancy Sublime China Information.
Based on the current price and cost, hog farmers will suffer a loss of 179.92 yuan per hog, showed the data.
China’s hog prices have declined further as the recurrence of pig diseases in many places in South China, which prompt hog farmers to accelerate hog slaughtering, coupled with some farmers’ reluctance to support hog prices after they failed to achieve monthly targets, it said.
On the consumer side, pork consumption remained weak, leaving not driving force to hog prices, it said.