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The rising price of imported pork hasn't affected the Chinese market, but the domestic pork supply did sink slightly, several pork importers told the Global Times on Friday

The drop in supply came after countries such as the Philippines and Vietnam, two major pork producing countries in Southeast Asia, joined the international pork "panic buying" fever, as the hog population has been hit hard by outbreaks of African swine fever (ASF).

The impact of stockpiling by the Philippines and Vietnam has not been seen yet, Liu Ge, an import pork trader in North China's Tianjin Municipality told the Global Times, adding that the imported pork price is about 10 percent lower compared to the beginning of the year, but still at a relatively high level.

He attributed the high price to rising catering industry demand, which started since the end of last year, but declined the price is due to a sufficient and cheap domestic supply.

Another pork importer from North China's Hebei Province surnamed Guo echoed Liu's comments. He said the imported pork price has been falling, and supply has been stable, although some countries such as the Philippines are stockpiling hogs.

The Philippines, the world's seventh-biggest pork importer before local demand fell due to the pandemic, has recorded a huge supply deficit in pork since ASF swept through the country in 2019. 

Reuters reported that the lingering disease resulted in a 26 percent contraction in hog population in the first quarter of this year for the country, while it plans to import roughly 400,000 tons of pork this year, more than double the 162,000 tons initially planned.

China is the largest pork consuming country in the world, and has raised hog imports since the outbreak of ASF in August 2018. 

From January to December 2020, China imported 4.39 million tons of pork, a year-on-year increase of 108.3 percent, but the pace has slowed due to efficient measures taken to lift pork production in the country. 

Official data showed that in the first quarter of 2021, China's pork imports totaled 1.16 million tons, an increase of 22.11 percent year-on-year. The top three countries were Brazil, Spain and the US. 

It is expected that China's dependence on pork imports will be greatly reduced in the second half of the year as the domestic pork price continues to go down, Li Guoxiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Friday.

 "As the African swine fever has been effectively contained in China, the current domestic pork price has returned to the level before the disease," he said.

Bus some importers still hold a cautious attitude toward the future price. "The price has been floating in recent days and is difficult to predict," an importer from South China's Guangdong Province told the Global Times on Friday.