Chinese pork production at eight-year high

China’s pork production in 2022 rose 4.6% from 2021, to the highest level since 2014, according to official data released in mid-January that contradicted expectations of lower growth, reported Reuters. Pork output from the world’s top meat producer reached 55.41 million tons, the highest since 56.71 million tons eight years ago. Output was boosted by a high fourth-quarter production of 13.91 million tons, according to Reuters calculations based on data from the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics. This was 0.87% higher than the same quarter a year earlier, despite labour shortages in slaughterhouses due to the COVID outbreaks. Farmers have raised heavier hogs in the hope of benefiting from an expected recovery in demand and prices, which could have boosted output. However, demand remained subdued as the resurgence of the COVID-19 epidemic in China caused many to stay at home, causing prices to fall.

“Feed production has been weak throughout 2022 and we have also seen this reflected in the lower yearly soybean import number. It is difficult to reconcile this higher meat production number with the declines seen in feed production and soybean imports,” said Darin Friedrichs, co-founder of Shanghai-based agriculture consultancy Sitonia Consulting. The data shows that China’s pork production has increased every quarter year-on-year for the last two years despite weak demand. China’s beef output rose 3% last year to 7.18 million tons, the data also showed, while poultry output rose 2.6% to 24.43 million tons and lamb and mutton increased 2% to 5.25 million tons.