China’s pork output declined over the first quarter for the first time in four years, as the market continues to last year’s dramatic over-supply.
Pork output was 0.4% lower than Q1 2023, at 15.83 million tonnes, over the first three months of 2024, with China slaughtering 194.55 million hogs, a decline of 2.2%, according to data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics published on Tuesday. China’s pig herd size at the end of March was down 5.2% to 408.5 million head, the data showed.
The first quarter usually sees a surge in pork production in preparation for China’s Lunar New Year holidays around February, but meat sales were ‘sluggish’ due to a slowdown in the economy, Reuters reports.
Last year saw farmers in China ramp up slaughter to cut losses amid an outbreak of African swine fever and due to excessive supply in the market that led to plummeting prices.
China, which consumes about half of the world’s pork, has encouraged pig enterprises to reduce production after an aggressive expansion led to a prolonged slump in pig prices.It has also lowered the national target for normal retention of breeding sows to 39 million from 41 million this year.
The supply of hogs in China is, however, still expected to exceed demand due to high numbers of productive sows and a reluctance by companies to destock after making large investments, the Reuters report adds.
In its latest quarterly global meat and poultry forecasts, the USDA estimates that pork production in China will contract by 3% in 2024.