Press Releases
Food and Health Bureau on Mainland live pig supply
A spokesman for the Food and Health Bureau said today (July 15) that the
Government had been concerned about the situation of live pig supply to Hong
Kong. The bureau was actively following up the issue, and would discuss with the
Ministry of Commerce shortly to ensure a stable supply of Mainland live pigs.
The supply of Mainland live pigs to Hong Kong stabilised after the importer had
adopted measures to tackle the problem.
In response to individual pig trader group's intention to stage protests, the
spokesman urged the trade to discuss the issue through dialogue, and not to
resort to drastic actions which might affect Hong Kong people.
On recent comments that the import figures of Mainland live pigs provided by the
bureau wasincorrect and that the actual supply was not up to 85 per cent of the
normal supply, the spokesman stressed that the daily import figures came from
the information provided on the health certificates accompanying imported live
pigs. The Government had been using this method of calculation, and no problem
was found in the past.
With regard to the ratio of recent pig supply to the normal supply, the
spokesman pointed out that in the past week, the number of Mainland live pigs to
Hong Kong was on average 3,900 per day. Taking the local live pig supply into
account, the overall daily pig supply was about 4,620.
The spokesman said that last year, average daily import figure of Mainland live
pigs was about 4,400, while the total supply was 5,430. The corresponding
figures in the first half of this year were 4,235 and 5,140. In the month of
June alone, the daily imported number and the total supply was respectively
4,525 and 5,220 pigs.
Therefore, compared with the figures in the whole oflast year, the first half of
this year and June this year, theaverage daily supply in the past week was
respectively 89%, 92% and 86% of the normal supply, while that for the total
supply was 85%, 90% and 89%.
Ends/Sunday, July 15, 2007
Issued at HKT 21:11
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