"Hadn't bought such cheap pork in years!" Some supermarkets are already as low as 5 yuan per jin. Will pork prices drop further?

“Pork has become cheaper, originally priced at 5.99 yuan per jin, now it’s at an 20% discount.” On the evening of the 27th, staff at a chain supermarket in Tongzhou District, Beijing, were introducing this to passing customers.

According to China News Service, the cheapest pork in the supermarket is front leg meat, priced at 5.99 yuan per jin, and after the discount, it is 4.792 yuan per jin; the prices for hind leg meat, pork belly, and ribs are relatively higher, with both hind leg meat and pork belly priced at 7.99 yuan per jin, and the prices for front ribs, middle ribs, and spare ribs are 11.9 yuan per jin, 16.9 yuan per jin, and 24.9 yuan per jin, respectively.

“Before the Spring Festival, the lowest price for pork here was 7 yuan per jin, and I thought it was very low at that time. I didn’t expect it to be less than 5 yuan now; I haven’t bought such cheap pork in years,” Ms. Ma, who frequently buys pork at the supermarket, told China News Service.

Recently, the news of pork price decreases has attracted attention.

According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, as of March 27 at 14:00, the average price of pork in national agricultural product wholesale markets was 15.73 yuan per kilogram, an increase of 0.5% from the previous day, down 13.48% from the 18.18 yuan per kilogram on February 14, before the Spring Festival, and down 10.57% from the 17.59 yuan per kilogram on December 31, 2025.

In addition, the weekly price monitoring report released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs showed that since the week of January 29, 2026, the average wholesale price of pork has decreased for seven consecutive weeks. In the week from March 20 to 26, 2026, the average wholesale price of pork was 15.84 yuan per kilogram, down 1.9% month-on-month and down 23.4% year-on-year, a decrease of 14.88% compared to the 18.61 yuan per kilogram in the week from January 23 to 29, 2026.

Furthermore, according to data from the National Key Agricultural Products Market Information Platform of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, as of March 26, the factory price index for lean white pigs has dropped to a new low since the same period in 2024.

The drop in pork prices is backed by a continuous slump in live pig prices.

According to monitoring by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, for the week of March 9 to 15, 2026, the average procurement price for live pigs by designated slaughter enterprises was 12.16 yuan per kilogram, down 3.2% month-on-month and down 25.8% year-on-year. The average factory price for white strip meat was 16.05 yuan per kilogram, down 3.0% month-on-month and down 25.3% year-on-year.

From the data disclosed by breeding enterprises, in February 2026, New Hope’s average selling price for commercial pigs was 11.45 yuan per kilogram, down 8.25% month-on-month and down 21.79% year-on-year; Muyuan Foods’ average selling price for commercial pigs was 11.59 yuan per kilogram, down 7.8% month-on-month and down 18.72% year-on-year; Wens Foodstuff Group’s average selling price for live pigs was 11.62 yuan per kilogram, down 8.86% month-on-month and down 22.33% year-on-year. In addition, the selling prices for live pigs from Tianbang Foods, Zhengbang Technology, Shennong Group, Juxing Agricultural and Animal Husbandry, and Dongrui Co., Ltd. also fell month-on-month in February.

Zhu Zengyong, a researcher at the Beijing Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the chief analyst for the pork industry chain monitoring and early warning at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, told China News Service that the core reason for the continuous decline in pork prices is abundant supply, compounded by the impact of the post-Spring Festival consumption off-season.

“Typically, the period from after the Spring Festival until March and April is the low season for pork consumption,” Zhu Zengyong said.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs also mentioned in the monitoring weekly report on factory prices of lean white strip pork for week 11 of 2026 (March 9 to 13, 2026) that the reasons for the drop in pork prices include “scattered farmers and large-scale farms actively selling, higher operating rates at slaughter enterprises, cautious inventory of processed products, abundant supply of white strip pork, while consumer demand has not shown significant improvement, leading to slower sales speed at slaughter enterprises and a decrease in white strip pork prices.”

According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, since June 2025, the national pig slaughter volume has continuously increased, with slaughter volume reaching 48.91 million pigs in December 2025, an increase of 23.6% month-on-month. From January to February 2026, the slaughter volume by designated slaughter enterprises was 75.81 million pigs, a year-on-year increase of 21.9%.

As for future trends, Zhu Zengyong stated, “Based on the current situation, pork prices may remain low for some time, with no possibility of a rebound, and the possibility of a significant decline is also relatively low.”

Written by: Yan Shuxin

Edited by: Li Xiaoxuan

Supervised by: Wei Wei, Li Zhongyuan

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