8 December 2022

2 minute read

By: Lyle Jones

Genesus pleased to the recent result of China’s National Breeding Pig Evaluation Program involving all 92 approved swine nucleus farms. As part of the program, the data is evaluated by comparing and ranking the performance of each participating nucleus. We were really pleased to see Genesus Nucleus Meishan Wanjiahao Pig Breeding Co., Ltd. (WJH) dominating the recently published data reports. Genesus WJH No. 1 Duroc 141.63 days. Genesus WJH No. 1 Landrace 144.29 days. Genesus WJH No. 2 Yorkshire 147.80 days.

WJH was an import from Genesus part of Genesus Global Genetic Program – MaxGen. We congratulate the WJH team on their execution of the Genesus Genetic program and excellent production management. We have always believed Genesus has the fastest-growing genetics and now the evidence of the 92 nucleus farms with every major global genetic company represented, shows Genesus domination.

China Market:

After a softening of pig prices throughout the month of November, slaughter pig prices rose to 23. 17 yuan/kg ($1.48/lb.) on December 4, 2022. At the same time 15kg feeder pigs are back over $100 per head again closing at 707.80 yuan each, and cull sow prices rose to 15.06 yuan/kg ($0.96/lb.). All this despite efforts to keep pig and pork prices in check with releases of fresh and frozen pork by local and municipal governments.

We do not know how much pork reserve inventories remain, but China traditionally peak season for consumption is approaching and with easing of pandemic control guidelines, we see no reason why the 2023 holiday season would be any different. It is our belief that China’s sow herd was reduced by at least 20% during liquidations from low market prices from July 2021 to July 2022 and still in recovery.

Pork Imports:

From January to October, China imported 1.3768 million tons of fresh and frozen pork, down 58.8% year on year. The top three sourcing countries are Spain, Brazil and Denmark, accounting for 27.5%, 23.7%, and 10.3% respectively. In addition, China imported 901,000 tons of pig offal, down 16.5% year on year. The top three sourcing countries for pig offal are USA (26%), Spain (21.7%) and Denmark (14.7%).

Market Outlook: Some Public reports seem to indicate that China’s sow inventory and production are stable, but we tend to look at pig prices as the true indicator and they are back on the rise. So that tells us there is still a shortfall of production. Look for China to import more pork in the coming months.