Authorities in Shenzhen of Guangdong Province will not utilize the city's 2,000-ton "meat reserve" although pork prices in the city are expected to remain high for at least another three months, yesterday's Daily Sunshine reported.

Pork prices will begin to drop after October, officials with the municipal bureau of trade and industry were quoted by the Daily Sunshine report as saying. The officials vowed to speed up construction of four modern slaughterhouses in Shenzhen and take measures to ensure almost all pigs come from government-approved pig farms.

The city has seen increases in the prices of both fresh pork and frozen pork. Frozen pork is being sold at Buji Farm Produce Wholesale Market for 8,000 yuan (US$1,052.63) a ton, an increase of 30 percent since last month, the report said.

To cope with the shortage in pork, the city authorities have started to ship more frozen pork from southwest China's Sichuan Province this month. At present, some 100 tons of frozen pork are being transported by train from Sichuan to Shenzhen daily.

The price surge in Shenzhen has been mainly caused by an outbreak of deadly blue ear disease among pigs in Hunan Province since spring this year, said Li Shun, a pork wholesaler in Longgang District. Most pigs sold for slaughter in Shenzhen are supplied by pig farms in Jiangxi and Hunan provinces.

Earlier media reports also blamed the soaring pork prices on a cyclical shortage of stock and higher cost for feed.

(Shenzhen Daily July 18, 2007)