China urged provincial authorities on Monday (3 June) to offer financial support to sow farms and large-scale pig farms to help stabilise pork production after African swine fever caused a sharp decline in its hog herd.

Credit guarantee providers should actively provide credit guarantee services to breeding farms and large-scale farms that produce more than 5,000 hogs a year, said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in a notice on its website.

It also called for guarantees on expiring loans to be extended for farmers and loan guarantees to be simplified and processing times to be shortened.

Interest rates on bank loans for farming companies should be capped at 2 percent, said the document.

The moves come after the ministry said China's breeding herd fell by 22 percent in April from a year ago, the largest drop ever, and raising worries of a shortage of pork in the world's top producer and consumer of the meat.