The Chinese government announced this week that is will be releasing around 10,000 metric tons of pork from its central reserves. The move is meant to stabilize the country's soaring pork prices, which have severely been affected by the ongoing African swine fever epidemic ravaging the industry.
The epidemic has so far wiped out around a third of the country's pigs, significantly decreasing the supply of the popular meat.
According to a statement from the government released on Tuesday, the 10,000 metric tons of pork will be auctioned online to interested buyers on Thursday. The sale and distribution of the frozen meat will be handled by China Merchandize Reserve Management Center, the state-owned company that manages the country's pork reserves.
Apart from pork meat, China Merchandize Reserve Management Center also stores and manages food items that are deemed to be strategically important for the country's economy. This includes items such as sugar, live pigs, and other types of frozen meat.
Majority of the pork meat that is being stored by the state-owned firm is directly imported from countries such as the UK, the United States, Denmark, Chile, and France. Major suppliers for the reserves include the US' Clemens Food and Seaboard, and Smithfield.
The order to release the massive amount of pork into the market was reportedly made by several government agencies, including the Ministry of Commerce and the Agricultural Development Bank of China. Interested buyers for the online auction will have to be individually vetted by the Commerce Ministry before Thursday. Buyers must also register with the China Merchandize Reserve Management Center prior to the auction date. Each bidder will only be limited to buying up to 300 tons of pork meat.
China is currently the largest producer and consumer of pork meat in the world. The massive industry has however suffered strategic losses due to the recent outbreak of African swine fever in the country.
As of last year, China has lost an estimated 100 million pigs, either through infection or through mandated culling in an attempt to control the spread of the disease.
The massive drop in production has understandably caused pork prices to skyrocket over the past months. Last year, pork prices nearly went up by 50 percent and prices are still continually climbing.
Local governments have previously released some of their local reserves of frozen pork meat, but Thursday's auction will be the first time since January that the central government has released some of its reserves.
