Rising pork prices boost fortunes of pig breeders

China's listed pig breeders reported better performance after the country's pork price began rising this year, according to the National Business Daily on Thursday.

Muyuan Foodstuff, a Henan-based major pig breeder, registered its net profit at 1.387 billion yuan ($198 million) in the first three quarters, a year-on-year increase of 296 percent. The company's stock price skyrocketed more than 180 percent since the start of this year, the report said.

Qin Yinglin, chairman of the company, and his family ranked ninth in the 2019 Forbes richest Chinese list, with a wealth of 117.4 billion yuan, while a year before Qin and his family were on 68th with 24.5 billion yuan.

Other major pig farming companies, like New Hope Group and Wens Foodstuff Group, all recorded over 100 percent net profit growth in the first three quarters, according to the report.

On the other hand, the country's stock of hogs started to rebound in November, increasing by 2 percent compared with the previous month, the first month-on-month rise since November last year. The number of breeding sows in stock expanded by 4 percent over the previous month, a growth for two consecutive months, said Wang Junxun, an official from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, at a news conference on Dec 17.

These two indicators show China has reversed the continuous decline in pork production, said Wang. In spite of this, it will take about six months to meet market needs after hogs stock increasing, but China's pork market may achieve better-than-expected balanced supply and demand during the upcoming Chinese New Year, as the government takes multiple measures to boost supply, according to Wang.

Chinese authorities announced plans on Thursday to release 40,000 tons of frozen pork from its central reserves to ensure market supply for the upcoming holidays.