China Regulates Prices in Bid to Solve Pork Shortage Crisis

A butcher cuts a piece of pork meat at his stall at a market in Beijing, China, on July 10, 2019. Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images

Chinese authorities have started regulating the price of pork in a bid to cope with a deadly outbreak that has devastated the country’s hog herd and sent prices soaring.

Since August 2018, African swine fever (ASF), which isn’t harmful to humans but lethal in pigs, has wiped out a third of the pig herd in China, causing pork prices to skyrocket over the past few months. The latest figures from China’s Ministry of Commerce on Sept. 3 show that wholesale prices increased by 8.9 percent in just one week to 34.59 yuan ($4.84) per kilogram.