FOR Xu, a mother and wife from central China, losing her family’s entire pig herd to African swine fever almost meant not serving the cured pork, known as “la rou,” and dried sausage central to her Lunar New Year meals.

“I wasn’t going to make any this year, but then my son said ‘Ma, I want to eat sausage, every year we have it,’ so I said OK I’ll make a bit,” she said, standing in her yard strung with homemade sausages, fish and cured pork on a line in a village in Gushi County, in Henan Province.

Like millions of other Chinese families, Xu will go with less of her favorite pork dishes as African swine fever has decimated its pig herds.

China is the world’s top pork consumer and la rou and dried sausage are eaten all over the country. Typically made during winter ahead of the Lunar New Year, strips of pork belly and leg meat are salted or smoked before being left to hang in the sun for days, resulting in dark, hard, salty or spicy meat.

Pork production fell 21 percent last year, official data showed Friday. That followed the agriculture ministry reporting the national pig herd shrank more than 40 percent by October. Pork prices have tripled from a year ago because of the shortage, and the resulting higher food costs have spiked inflation to an eight-year high.

“Every year, I make a lot, but this year I just did a little,” said Xu, who added even that small amount cost her 300 yuan (US$43.67). “Pork just costs too much. People can’t bear the price.”

The government has released more than 200,000 tons of frozen pork since December to boost supplies ahead of the country’s most important national holiday that begins Jan. 24. It also imported a record 375,000 tons of pork last month.

Traditionally, la rou and sausages are made at home, but as urban migration rises artisanal markets selling home-style meats have popped up in most cities.

But this festive season, la rou sellers are reporting slowing sales and fewer customers.

“This year, pork is very expensive so individual customers are buying less [la rou],” said Zhang Sheng, who has sold cured pork in a wet market in Guiyang in the southwestern province of Guizhou for the past five years. In Shanghai, four la rou makers said their businesses have taken a hit because of price increases of 20-30 percent.

“I imagine many people will be having more chicken and duck this new year,” said one of the sellers. (SD-Agencies)