The average pork price has dropped to 12.61 yuan this week, 9.61 percent lower than the peak price on August 9, said China's economic planner after pork prices nearly doubled in the past eight months due to short supply and mounting production costs.

The prices have seen a consecutive drop for the eighth week, down by 3.45 percent from the end of August, as the piglets raised since May and June grew ready for the market to add to the pork supply.

Pigs daily butchered in 36 major cities have increased by 12.6 percent from August, and the supply is expected to keep rising, said the National Development and Reform Commission.

But the Ministry of Commerce said the decline in the pork prices would probably stop as demand surges during the ongoing National Day holiday and feedstuff prices stay high.

The soaring pork prices is a major contributor to the general food price hikes that drive up the consumer price index to a 6.5 percent increase in August.

(Xinhua News Agency October 2, 2007)