BEIJING - The governed will take concrete measures to
ensure adequate supplies of pork and cooking oil ahead
of the Spring Festival shopping spree, a senior
official said Sunday.
Minister of Commerce Chen Deming said, "Commerce
departments will maintain market stability and ensure
that commodities necessary to the lives of the public
are not out of stock before and during the traditional
holiday."
"The ministry will strengthen daily monitoring of the
market and keep a close watch on changes in supply and
demand and prices, " he said.
Rising food prices, especially pork, the country's
staple meat, had pushed the consumer price index to an
11-year high of 6.9 percent in November last year.
China's pork production fell dramatically last summer
on breeders' dampened enthusiasm due to rising feed
costs in addition to a massive pig cull after the
outbreak of blue-ear disease in some regions.
The nationwide supply of pork, however, had recovered
to the level of the same period of last year,
according to the ministry.
Chen said the ministry would encourage companies to
increase supplies of grain, cooking oil and meat and
to redistribute these key commodities between
different regions.
The government would release part of its reserves of
meat products to the market in an effort to satisfy
the demand from low-income families, college students,
migrant workers and people of minority nationalities.
To increase supply, the ministry would also adjust its
trade policy and crack down on profiteering, hoarding
and other activities that disrupted the market order,
he said.