China pork output marks first quarterly decline in four years

By Mei Mei Chu

BEIJING, April 16 (Reuters) - China's pork output eased in January-March from a year earlier, the first quarterly decline in nearly four years, as farmers slaughtered fewer pigs to support a recovery in hog prices.

Meat sales during the quarter - the peak season due to Lunar New Year holidays - were also sluggish as China struggles to mount a strong and sustainable post-COVID economic bounce, undermining consumer confidence.

Pork output fell 0.4% from a year ago to 15.83 million tonnes, the first quarterly drop since the second quarter of 2020, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Tuesday.

Some 194.6 million hogs were slaughtered, a fall of 2.2%.

Chinese hog farming companies in China had, from late last year until February, ramped up slaughter amid an outbreak of African swine fever and due to excessive supply in the market that prompted prices of pigs to plummet.

China, which consumes about half of the world's pork, has encouraged the companies, which have aggressively expanded in recent years, to reduce hog numbers.

It has also lowered this year's national target for normal retention of breeding sows to 39 million from 41 million.

The supply of hogs in China is, however, still expected to exceed demand due to high numbers of productive sows and a reluctance by companies to destock after making large investments.

Cash prices in the world's biggest pork-producing nation were at about 15.2 yuan ($2.10) per kilogramme on Monday, according to data from consultancy MySteel.

That's up from 13.5 yuan in late February - a level well below the average production cost of 16 yuan per kg.

China's pig herd size at the end of March was down 5.2% from the previous year to 408.5 million heads, the NBS data showed. The sow herd at the end of February was down 6.9% at 40.42 million, separate data from China's agriculture ministry shows.

(Reporting by Mei Mei Chu; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)