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In response to media enquiries, a spokesman for the Food and Health Bureau today (June 5) reiterated that the primary concern of the Government has always been maintaining a stable supply of live pigs to Hong Kong from the Mainland.
The spokesman noted that the live pig supply in May was stable with a daily average of about 4 200 live pigs.
Since the Hong Kong Agriculture Special Zone Limited was appointed by Mainland authorities as one of the Hong Kong live pig agents last November, it has been engaging in live pig import business. In May 2008, the Hong Kong Agriculture Special Zone Limited had an average daily import of 600 live pigs from the Mainland, which represented 15 per cent of the total live pig supply to Hong Kong.
"We understand that the Hong Kong Agriculture Special Zone Limited has set up a pig farm in the Mainland, but it will take time for the company to meet the requirement of an annual production of 10 000 live pigs in order to become a registered pig farm for supply to Hong Kong. Therefore, the company cannot export any pigs to Hong Kong at the moment." the spokesman added.
There were other press reports saying that the Sichuan earthquake has led to a surge in pork price in Hong Kong. The spokesman pointed out that Sichuan Province did not supply live pigs to Hong Kong. Chongqing, on the other hand, had a limited supply of live pigs to Hong Kong. From January to April 2008, Chongqing supplied around 200 pigs to Hong Kong, which only accounted for 0.05 per cent of the total live pig supply in the same period of time.
As for frozen pork, it is estimated that the earthquake would result in a reduction of supply from Sichuan of about 500 tonnes a month, which constitutes about three per cent of the monthly frozen pork supply (about 17 000 tonnes) in Hong Kong.
Despite the Central Government is occupied with the rescue work after the earthquake, the Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine have taken the initiative to contact the Food and Health Bureau. They promised to co-ordinate the concerned parties in order to maintain a stable supply of frozen pork to Hong Kong.
"We are very grateful to the Central Government for its care of the well being of Hong Kong citizens," the spokesman said.
Ends/Thursday, June 5, 2008
Issued at HKT 20:35
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