Hong Kong’s pork prices likely to rise as pig supplies from mainland China drop sharply due to swine fever outbreak
- Numbers of pigs imported from across the border fell by half over six days around Christmas, though industry spokesman says this was due to a dip in demand
- Price increases have so far been limited to individual shops, but one Michelin-starred restaurant has been forced to cut back on one of its pork liver dishes
As the African swine fever outbreak swept the mainland, the number of pigs imported from across the border fell 51 per cent – from 4,326 on December 20 to 2,135 on December 26 – according to figures from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD).
Chong Chung-ping, chairman of the Hong Kong Livestock Industry Association, said fewer pigs were being transported to the city mainly because demand dips during holidays.
“If Hong Kong is having a shortage of pigs, you can see an obvious increase in pork prices. But the price of pork remains steady, which means that the number of imported pigs are enough at the moment,” he said.
But Hui Wai-kin, secretary general of the Pork Traders General Association of Hong Kong, cautioned that the mainland’s pig supply to the city could become unstable.
“Pork prices are certain to be high,” he said.
On Wednesday, the national General Administration of Customs revealed that 20 of 154 mainland farms that provide pigs to Hong Kong and Macau had stopped sending their animals across the border.
The two latest farms affected, located in Jiangxi province, were close to the contaminated area. There were 17 others in neighbouring Guangdong province and one in Hubei province.
