Emart Launches 'Pig Farming Support Discount Event' to Boost Pork Consumption

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Emart is joining hands with the Korean Pork Producers Association to promote pork consumption in order to help pig farmers who are suffering from double hardships due to sluggish consumption and falling market prices.

Emart announced on the 10th that from the 14th to the 16th, for three days, it will sell domestic refrigerated pork belly and neck meat at about 30% cheaper than the usual price, at 990 KRW per 100g. The prepared quantities are 200 tons of pork belly and 50 tons of neck meat, which is the amount usually sold over five weeks based on pork belly.

Emart organized the ‘Pig Farmers Support Discount Event’ to help domestic pig farmers who are struggling due to the decline in pork prices caused by consumption stagnation and to promote pork consumption.

The wholesale price of pork has not been able to avoid weakness. According to data from the Livestock Products Quality Evaluation Service, from the 20th of last month, when the first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus was reported, until the 6th of this month, the average wholesale price of pork (tangbak, per kg) was 2,906 KRW. This is about 17% lower than the average wholesale price of 3,505 KRW during the same period last year and is the lowest level since 2011.

The production cost of pork was surveyed at 4,570 KRW per kg for farms with fewer than 1,000 pigs and 4,074 KRW per kg for farms with 1,000 to fewer than 2,000 pigs. If the current low wholesale prices persist, pig farmers will be in a situation where they cannot even cover production costs.

The main cause of the decline in pork wholesale prices is attributed to sluggish consumption. The Korea Rural Economic Institute forecasted in its ‘2020 Agricultural Outlook’ released last month that the per capita pork consumption this year will be 26.6 kg, a 5% decrease from 28.0 kg last year.

Moreover, with the African Swine Fever outbreak at the end of last year further dampening pork consumption sentiment, and the novel coronavirus situation causing demand to decrease mainly in the food service industry, the market price shows no signs of recovery, according to industry analysis.

In fact, Emart’s analysis of domestic pork sales from January to February 6 showed a decrease of about 2.5% compared to the same period last year.

No Seung-min, Emart’s livestock buyer, said, “We urgently prepared this event to help domestic pig farmers who are facing internal and external difficulties due to falling wholesale prices and sluggish consumption,” adding, “We will continue to seek ways to revitalize pork consumption to secure sales channels for domestic pig farmers.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.