Workers process pork at a slaughterhouse in Zibo, Shandong province, on Monday. (Photo: Wang Jing / China Daily)
Numbers down
A shortage of stock and rising feed and labor costs are chiefly responsible for the increase in the market price for pigs.
Shandong farmers raised 40 million pigs last year, 1 million of them in Zibo. This year, however, the number of pigs in the city has dropped to about 950,000, said Xue Lequan, deputy director of the city livestock bureau's production division.
Farmers reckon the cost of raising a pig to market is 8 yuan a kg. When the price dropped from 13 yuan in 2009 to 9.6 last year, many growers stopped breeding pigs and sought city jobs.
In Wang's village, 17 families left pig breeding behind last year. Only seven are still in business.
They are raising 1,200 pigs this year, which is 1,700 fewer than last year, Wang Shunlin said. He owns the biggest pigpen in the village, accommodating 600 heads.
Farmers fear disease most. Last winter was warmer than normal, and more bacteria survived. Many sows fell ill and fewer piglets were born. Five of the 10 sows in Wang Yugui's pen failed to get pregnant because of disease, and he lost 40 piglets.
Food and keepers
"Corn accounts for 60 percent of pig feed" and its price is up 30 percent from April 2008, said Feng Yonghui, chief analyst of Soozhu.com, an online pig market monitoring and analysis service. "It reached a record high in March this year before the price of pigs and pork did."
Li, the Beijing pig farmer, thinks that in the background of inflation, the price of corn is acceptable if it stays below 3 yuan a kg. Still, even if farmers are getting more for their pigs at market, the extra they spend on fodder narrows their profit margin.
Each pig consumes 250 kg of corn in the six months or so from birth to market. Corn, which sold for 1.6 yuan a kg in 2005, now costs 2.3 yuan a kg. It means Wang Yugui spends 12,250 yuan more on corn.
1 2 3 4 5
Source:China Daily
Weekly review
