Pork production in China may increase 3.2 percent this year as the hog herd recovers from disease outbreaks in 2007, the United States Foreign Agricultural Service said.

China may produce 46 million metric tons of pork this year, up from 44.593 million tons last year, agricultural attaches Zhang Jianping and Chanda Beckman said in an e-mailed report. Porcine reproductive respiratory syndrome, also known as PRRS or blue-ear disease, curbed production in the previous two years.

(Shanghai Daily January 12, 2009)