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(1) David Pierson, Pork Shortage Hurting Chinese Economy. Los Angeles Times, Sept 9, 2011.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/09/business/la-fi-china-pork-lovers-20110910
Quote:
"Basic stir-fry [pork] meat costs about $2.50 per pound, or about one-sixth a laborer's daily wage.
"China, by far the world's biggest producer of pork, is home to about half the world's porcine population with 460 million pigs. That's about seven times more than the United States, the second-largest producer. But it hasn't been enough to keep a lid on prices, which have risen steeply since the middle of last year. That's when Chinese farmers reduced production in response to high feed costs and shrinking profit margins. A spate of hog diseases also cut into the supply. * * * [China] consumes 100,000 tons of pork daily.
"'The government has limited options," he [an analyst at Soozhu.com] said. 'They can import more, but most of the production is already in China.'
Note:
(a) The report quotes a Chinese adage, "A Chinese adage goes, "The world will be in peace as long as there are grains and pork."
Either the author invents it or it is a Chinese thing. Taiwan does not have the adage.
(b) The report said, "Closing in on 100 pounds per person annually, the Chinese eat about twice as much pork as Americans."
Let them (Chinese) eat beef. Americans eat beef in large measure, even in New England, though beef, a red meat, is not good to (human) health. I can not fathom why New Englanders do not eat seafood, as Taiwanese and Japanese do--now that all the three people live by ocean.
(c) soozhu.com 搜猪网
(d) Wu Mart _物美集团 (总部地址:北京市海淀区西四环北路158-1号物美商业大厦)
www.wumart.com
(e) The report cited a researcher Liu Yuman, who advised Chinese to eat chicken. Why not?
(2) Fayen Wong, China Pork Prices Seen Rising to Year-End--Industry Body. Reuters, Sept 8, 2011
http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL3E7K80BS20110908
("'Corn prices have continued to rise over the past few months so that will increase production costs for pig farmers,' [said] Qiao Yufeng, vice president of the China Animal Husbandry Association" 中国畜牧业协会)
My comment:
(a) The report said, "Lower than-expected hog stocks have also hurt demand for soybeans in China, the world's largest importer." So it is China's hog deficiency that hurts soybean exporters outside China--not the otehr way around.
(b) The last paragraph of the report stated, "China has already increased its pork imports as demand growth has surpassed the growth of production." See next.
(3)
(a) Paul A. Ebeling Jr, Hog Market Recap. Sept 15, 2011
http://www.livetradingnews.com/hog-market-recap-54419.htm
("Rumors of buying from China of US Pork this week has helped support" of US hog price)
(b) Li Yongchun, China Pork Imports from U.S. Rise Fivefold. Caixin, Sept 13, 2011.
http://english.caing.com/2011-09-13/100302160.html
(c) Pork Imports Set to Hit a Record. China Daily, Sept 17, 2011
http://www.china.org.cn/business/2011-09/17/content_23437472.htm(import not enouh to sate domestic demand: "An earlier report from the Netherlands-based Rabobank Group indicated that the potential gap between pork supply and demand would be between 2 and 2.5 million tons in 2012. The import volume of pork and pork offal will be 1.1 to 1.4 million tons this year")
(4) Yang Wanli and Shi Baoyin, Pig Farmers Hope to Breed Success. China Daily, Aug 22, 2011
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/usa/business/2011-08/22/content_13160238.htm
Quote: In China, "small family farms are buckling under the weight of volatile prices, disease and rising costs. * * * Ten years ago, 15 or 16 small-scale breeders lived in his [Yang's] village [in Henan]. Now only two are left. * * * Five years ago, Yang said, the cost of raising a hog totaled about 1,000 yuan; now it's about 1,500 yuan. The selling price, 2,500 yuan, hasn't changed. 'Doing city jobs only paid 10 to 20 yuan a day years ago, and people would rather raise hogs,' Yang said. 'But now, people make 100 yuan a day by doing city jobs. Who would choose breeding pigs?'
My comment:
(a) The report stated,"Li is among many family breeders across the country who have chosen to leave the business since an outbreak of H1N1 flu in 2008."
It alludes to
pandemic H1N1/09 virus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic_H1N1/09_virus
(section 1.1 Virus origins)
(b) Qinyang 河南省焦作市 沁阳市
(c) Chuying 河南雏鹰农牧股份有限公司
www.chu-ying.com/
(d) New Hope Group 新希望集团
www.newhopegroup.com/
(e) CP Group 正大集团
www.cpgroup.cn/
(5) Nigel Chalk, Darn Them Piggies! Pork Prices And The Inflation Outlook For China. International Monetary Fund (IMF), Sept 11, 2011 (blog).
http://blog-imfdirect.imf.org/2011/09/11/pork-prices-and-chinas-inflation-outlook/
Quote:
"Why is inflation so concentrated in this particular slice of the consumption basket? Mainly because the supply-demand balance for food in China is exceptionally tight and the supply response to higher food prices is both slow and weak.
"This isn’t simply a matter of importing more food to offset domestic supply disruptions. China’s food demands are just way too big. China both produces and consumes * * * one-half of the world’s pigs
My comment:
(a) In quotation 1, the clause "the supply response to higher food prices is both slow and weak" refers to the fact that information is China is opaque, if not censored. Economist Adam Smith coined the term "an invisible hand": people seeking profit will act and react to price hike by increasing production. But in China people rarely know what is going on.
(b) A section heading of this article reads, "Pork happens."
It is a mock of a phrase that suggests it is not the speaker's fault: "Things happen" or, vulgarly: "Shit happens."
(c) The "out of the woods" is a phrase, where the woods is a forest (figuratively, a dangerous place).
(to be continued)
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