CHINA, the world’s top pork consumer, imported a record 400,000 tons in April, up nearly 170 percent from a year earlier, customs data showed, as buyers took advantage of low prices to stock up on meat.

China imported 1.35 million tons of pork in the first four months of this year, surging 170.4 percent from the same period a year ago, after a plunge in domestic production kept prices much higher than other markets.

The African swine fever disease has reduced China’s pig herd by at least 40 percent, slashing pork output and sending prices of the country’s favorite meat to record highs.

China has been buying from overseas markets, including the United States, where pork prices are among the cheapest in the world, and initially fell as infections with COVID-19 began spreading in the country, hitting demand.

Though Chinese pork prices have also fallen steadily since early February, they are still about double where they were a year ago, and were three to four times U.S. pork prices in March, before plant shutdowns caused the latter to spike in mid-April.

That U.S. price jump is likely to reduce imports in the coming month, while Chinese pork prices are also still falling on weak domestic demand.

U.S. pork exports to China set a record for the period from January to March, according to the USDA.

China also brought in 160,000 tons of beef in April, up 28 percent from the previous year. Imports of the meat in the first four months of the year rose 54 percent to 680,000 tons, according to customs data.

China’s pork price will not see significant rise as hog production is gradually recovering, Han Changfu, minister of agriculture and rural affairs, said Friday.

The prices of live pigs in China continued to retreat as government policies to boost hog production took effect, official data showed yesterday.

Hog prices went down 9.9 percent in mid-May compared with the previous 10 days, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Since last year, the country has implemented a string of policies to encourage hog production and stabilize pork prices affected by African swine fever and other cyclical factors.

To soften the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak, China has ramped up financial support including subsidies and loans to major pig producing counties to restore production.

(SD-Agencies)