China’s pork industry has seen outputs rise in the first quarter by 1.9% year on year to 15.9 million tonnes, the highest quarter since Q4 in 2017.
This comes after farmers expected a recovery in demands during Q4 of 2022 and raised heavier animals to take advantage of projected high prices, according to a report by Reuters.
A surge in Covid-19 cases saw demand fall and farmers rushing to offload pigs in late January, which would normally be the peak season.
China has experience a resurgence of African swine fever cases in the early part of this year, prompting speculation that this will hit pork production volumes and increase import demand. However, in the short-term, this has resulted in forced culling, further pushing up Q1 slaughter numbers.
China slaughtered 198.99 million hogs in Q1, up 1.7% and the pig herd also increased by 2% year on year to 430.94 million, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.