VICE Premier Hu Chunhua said the country must resolutely work to achieve the target of recovering pig production numbers, and stabilize pork supply for the upcoming holidays, Xinhua reported.

China must ensure stable pork supply in key periods of early 2020, including the Lunar New Year holidays in January and during the annual National People’s Congress in March, Xinhua quoted Hu as saying at a meeting on animal husbandry Saturday.

The number of hogs in China plunged more than 40 percent in October from a year earlier because of African swine fever, but there are signs that the pace of decline is slowing, according to government data published Friday.

While the slump in hog inventories was little changed from September on a year-on-year basis, the decrease shrank to 0.6 percent from 3 percent when measured month on month, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

The population of breeding sows increased 0.6 percent from September, but was still down 38 percent from a year earlier.

China’s wholesale pork prices fell for a third week from a record in the five days to Nov. 22 and posted the biggest weekly drop in years. The decline was due to rising imports and more supplies of frozen pork from stockpiles, Gao Feng, commerce ministry spokesman, said Thursday.

The Securities Times newspaper also reported that Fang Xinghai, vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said at a forum Saturday China will also launch a new pig futures contract as soon as possible given the importance of pork to the Chinese diet.

(SD-Agencies)