China insures 45Per Cent of Sows to Ease Pork Shortage
CHINA - China HAS insured 44.5 percent of sows nationwide in a bid to ease a pork shortage and curb the rising price of China's staple meat.
3 December 2007
2 minute read
The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) insurance regulator authorized five domestic insurers last August to undertake a pilot sow insurance scheme for pig breeders in response to the short supply of pork fueled by feedstuff price hikes and outbreaks of the blue-ear pig disease.
The insurance covers losses from blue-ear disease and natural disasters such as floods, fires, typhoons and other epidemics.
The price of pork, which almost doubled this year before starting to decline in mid-August, rebounded 54.9 percent in October, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics.
Analysts say the higher pork and food prices pushed up the consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, to 6.5 percent year-on-year in October, the same as in August, when the CPI rise reached an 11-year monthly record.
