Chinese Agriculture Minister Sun Zhengcai said on Saturday that pork prices have been declining since August, as the supply of live pigs was on the rise.

The price of pork, the country's staple meat, had fallen to 18.98 yuan (US$2.53) per kilogram on September 5, down from 21.4 yuan (US$2.85) on August 9, representing a 11.3-percent drop within nearly a month, according to figures from the ministry.

Live pigs in stock went up by 3.4 percent compared with the previous month, and pigs ready for sales reported a 9.9-percent increase year on year to reverse the declining trend recorded in July, according to Sun. The number of sows in stock nationwide rose 3.8 percent in August from a month earlier, which is 3.1 percentage points higher than the figure for July, said the minister at a pig production conference held in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The blue ear pig disease, which caused pork supply shortage and fuelled price hikes in recent months, was gradually brought under control within the affected area, the minister said.

He said cases of the outbreak of the blue ear pig disease were down by 52 percent in July from a month earlier, with pig deaths from the disease falling 36 percent over that for June.

The disease still lingers in 14 Chinese counties, according to previous figure.

Chinese officials repeatedly reassured the citizens that pork prices were unlikely to rise by a large margin in the long run, but admitted that short-term turbulence in the pork market could be "inevitable".

(Xinhua News Agency September 16, 2007)