China’s pig herd shrank 25.8% in June compared with the same month a year earlier, while the sow herd contracted 26.7%, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on Monday.So the number of pigs are down big resulting in some weirdness:
The huge drop in numbers comes amid a severe epidemic of African swine fever (ASF), deadly to pigs but not harmful to humans, that has swept through the world’s top pork producer over the last year....MORE
China's first-half pork output falls amid disease outbreak
China’s pork output fell by less than expected in the first half as the country tackles a devastating disease outbreak, although official data showed conflicting figures on the size of the decline in the hog herd.But whether the government is cooking the books or not, as we've been pointing out in regards to soybeans, dead pigs don't eat:
China produced 24.7 million tonnes of pork in the first six months of 2019, down 5.5% from a year earlier, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, amid a severe epidemic of African swine fever.
China’s hog herd - the world’s largest - declined 15% from a year ago to 347.61 million head, the bureau said, as pigs died from the virus and farmers held back from restocking.
But figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on the same day said the herd had shrunk 25.8% in June from a year earlier, with the number of sows down 26.7%. The ministry does not publish total number of pigs.
Analysts were surprised at the fall in pork output, which showed the pace of decline little changed from 5.2 percent in the first quarter, even as swine fever has spread to every province in China....MORE
Cargill shuts animal-feed mills in China as fatal hog disease spreads
