The Chinese government on Wednesday vowed to provide greater
support to pig farmers in a fresh move to ensure adequate market
supply and stabilize food prices.
The government said it would double the subsidy for every
fertile sow to 100 yuan (13.6 U.S. dollars) next year at a State
Council executive meeting presided by Premier Wen Jiabao.
The decision came one week after China announced that rising
food prices, especially pork, the country's meat staple, had pushed
the inflation rate to a new 11-year high of 6.9 percent in
November.
China's pork production fell dramatically this summer on
breeders' dampened enthusiasm due to rising feed costs over the
past few years in addition to a massive pig cull after the outbreak
of blue-ear disease in some regions.
The sow insurance, which was launched in August to cover losses
from pig epidemics and natural disasters, would extend to "as many
sows as possible", the meeting said.
By November, China had insured 21.2 million sows, or 44.5
percent of the total nationwide, with insurance fees totaling 21.6
billion yuan, according to the China Insurance Regulatory
Commission.
The central government also planned to spend 2.5 billion yuan
next year to help breeders build "standardized, large-scale" pig
farms, the meeting said.
Vaccinations against major pig epidemics would be available free
of charge and subsidies should be offered to farmers whose pigs
have to be culled for disease control, it said.
To curb rising prices for feed, the central government would
release part of its corn reserves to the market. Banks were also
told to improve their services and to give loans to pig
breeders.
The government vowed it would crack down on activities that
attempted to force up prices far beyond real values, and to lower
transport costs for farm products.
(Xinhua News Agency December 20, 2007)