Economists rarely think about the average gestation period of pigs. In China things are different
ECONOMISTS RARELY think about the average gestation period of pigs or the length of time a sow needs to reach sexual maturity . In China things are different. For anyone analysing its growth prospects, a basic knowledge of hog-breeding cycles is part of the job. Pigs are so central to the Chinese diet that the ups and downs of pork prices have had an outsized impact on inflation over the years.
Officials are worried. China consumes about 55m tonnes of pork each year, as much as the rest of the world combined. Hu Chunhua, a vice-premier, said in August that the supply shortfall this year will be about 10m tonnes, more than the volume traded on international markets. So imports cannot plug the gap. The government has announced a range of incentives, from direct subsidies to low-interest loans, to encourage pig farmers to expand.
Yet the Chinese government’s bigger concern is affordability, not inflation. Pork, along with rice, is close to a daily necessity for many in China. The word “meat” by itself almost always refers to pork. But whereas everyone grumbles about price increases, the pain is felt most acutely by the poor, because they spend more of their income on food. “I feel less free,” says Ms Zhang, a retiree doing her morning shopping at a Shanghai market.
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