China’s pork output logs third year-on-year quarterly decline

China’s pork production in the third quarter fell 0.8 per cent from a year earlier, government data showed on Friday, falling on an annual basis for a third consecutive quarter as poor meat consumption hampered slaughter rates.

Output during June-September in the world’s top pork producing nation declined to 12.59 million metric tons, a Reuters calculation based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

Meat demand has slowed in China, which consumes about half of the world’s pork, with shoppers tightening their belts to cope with a sluggish economy.

“Supply pressure still exists in the market with no obvious improvement in demand … supply and demand is at a stalemate,” Beijing-based agribusiness consultancy Boyar said.

For the first nine months of the year, production fell 1.4 per cent to 42.4 million tons.

Farmers slaughtered 520.3 million hogs during the first nine-months of the year, down 3.2 per cent from a year earlier, the data showed.

China’s pig herd size at the end of September was down 3.5 per cent from the previous year to 426.94 million heads, the NBS data showed.

The shrinking herd size is in line with a government target to overcome an overcapacity of hogs that has depressed pork prices in recent years.