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China’s Pork Consumption Risks Collapse as Prices Surge

  • Households are counting the cost of African swine fever
  • The nation’s appetite for the meat could shrink by half
A customer picks out a pig ear at a pork stall inside the Dancun Market in Nanning, Guangxi province.

A customer picks out a pig ear at a pork stall inside the Dancun Market in Nanning, Guangxi province.

Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
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Bloomberg News
Updated on

Tang Jie, who works on a pig farm, says he used to get pork from the wet market near his home every day. But he hasn’t bought any in two months. And his favorite dish, stewed pork ribs with lotus root, has been cut from the menu at his local restaurant.

“We can barely afford the prices,” Tang, a resident of the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu, said at a hog conference last month. “Restaurants are changing the menu, and using less pork because of the high prices.”