Authorities across different cities in China have announced new measures in recent days to ensure pork supply and stabilize pork prices ahead of the upcoming Mid-Autumn festival holidays, an uptick demand season, after the country's price of pork sees a costlier ride amid an outbreak of African swine fever.

The economic planner in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province, announced over the weekend that from Saturday to September 30, it is releasing 1,600 tons of frozen pork at the state reserve to the market at a price that is 10 percent lower than the market price. 

The frozen pork will be put into market through supermarket chains, schools, cured meat shops, canteens and restaurants, according to media reports. Local regulators also set a target to breed 400,000 hogs in rural Guangzhou this year. 

In line with a "green channel" order issued by China's transportation ministry, the city has also waived highway toll fees for passing trucks and vehicles that carry pigs and frozen pork. The new rule went into effect on September 1 and will last until June 30, 2020.

In a detailed policy issued by the transport authority in South China's Hainan Province, vehicles carrying frozen pork and hogs into the island will be exempt from fees for three days every time they pass through a highway toll station. Shipping enterprises will also charge 4 yuan lower for every ton of frozen pork or hogs they process at ports. 

In late August, hog prices hit 27 yuan per kilogram, up 10 percent from mid-August and 42 percent up on late July, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday. That compared with a record 21 yuan a kilogram set in 2016, according to data released by Shanghai JC Intelligence.

On the supply side, the number of pigs sank 32.2 percent year-on-year in July in 400 counties being monitored, according to data released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.