How much money can you make raising a pig in 2017? Pork price forecast
Jiangxi: Raising one pig earns 750 yuan; 2017 pork prices predicted to stay high!
Interpretation
Declining capacity, rising prices
Director Xu of the Comprehensive Division of the Jiangxi Provincial Animal Husbandry Bureau said that after two to three years of prolonged losses, pig production capacity declined noticeably. Especially in 2014, when farmers were in a state of severe loss, the pig industry accelerated its reshuffling, and small and medium-sized farms across the province closed down one after another; in 2015, the new Environmental Protection Law and the “Water Ten Plan” and “Soil Ten Plan” were successively introduced, and many key pig-producing counties and cities stepped up enforcement of the “three-zone planning,” demolishing or shutting down a number of pig farms that did not comply with regulations. The combination of multiple factors kept pig prices at a persistently high level in 2016.
Director Xu predicts that in 2017, pork prices may still remain at a high level. There are two reasons: first, restoring production capacity takes a certain amount of time; second, the new Environmental Protection Law imposes strict requirements, and the industry is still in a stage of continuous rectification, with each region designating no-breeding zones, so production capacity that does not comply with the new Environmental Protection Law will be suppressed.
“Pork belly on special for 12.98 yuan/jin, lean meat on special for 14.98 yuan/jin, pork ribs at 24.98 yuan/jin.” These were the prices the reporter saw on January 23 this year at a large supermarket on Dieshan Road in Nanchang. Customer Auntie Liu told the reporter that pork prices have been quite expensive all along, especially in the first half of last year, when pork was even bought at 16 yuan/jin; after a slight decline in the second half of the year, with this year's Spring Festival approaching and consumption increasing, pork prices have started rising again.
Auntie Liu said: “It's the New Year, and the children have all come back from out of town, so meat is indispensable. The family likes braised pork ribs, but the price of these ribs has risen by three or four yuan per jin compared with December.”
Story
Raising one pig: from losing 300 yuan to earning 750 yuan
Mr. Zhang, an individual farmer in Ruihong Town, Yugan County, has raised pigs at home for eight years. In 2009, pig prices were fairly good, so he expanded his breeding scale, and a wave of pig farming also sprang up locally. In early 2012, he invested more than 200,000 yuan and bought more than 300 piglets, but in the end the prices were disappointing and he suffered severe losses.
The following year, Mr. Zhang reduced his investment, but still lost money. Mr. Zhang said that starting in 2014, many nearby farmers closed their farms one after another and went out to work. At the time, the lowest purchase price for live pigs reached 5 yuan/jin. Mr. Zhang said: “My cost of raising one pig is about 6 yuan/jin. For a 300-jin pig, I lose 300 yuan.”
With large numbers of farmers shutting down, pig output declined. In March 2015, pork prices began to rebound, and Mr. Zhang, disregarding his family's objections, bought more than one hundred piglets and more than a dozen sows. During this period, Mr. Zhang kept increasing his investment and adding to the number of piglets. By the end of 2015, he finally sold his first batch of live pigs at 8.35 yuan/jin, turning losses into profit.
Last year, pork prices continued to soar, and Mr. Zhang's market-ready output reached more than 200 head, earning him more than 750 yuan per pig and a profit of more than 200,000 yuan. He believes that pork prices are determined by market supply and demand and will not swing wildly up and down quickly, and next year he will continue to increase his investment and expand his breeding scale.