China’s pork production in the third quarter hit a ten-year record

China’s pork production in the third quarter rose 4.8% from a year earlier to 12.69 million tons, the highest quarterly output in at least a decade. China’s pork production in the first nine months of the year rose 3.6% from a year earlier to 43.01 million tons, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

China slaughtered 537.23 million hogs in the first nine months of the year, up 3.3% from a year earlier, and the pig herd rose to 442.29 million in the third quarter from 435.17 million head in the previous quarter, according to the data.

China’s hog production is still rising, an agriculture ministry official said Monday, with higher-than-normal numbers of breeding sows expected to keep downward pressure on prices already evident in the futures market.

At the end of September, China had a herd of 42.4 million sows, 3.4 percent higher than normal, Chen Guanghua, head of the livestock and veterinary bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said at a press briefing.

Tags: China, pork