Prices of pork prices in Shenzhen have recently soared to a 10-year high.

At Shenzhen Wal-Mart, a kilogram of streaky pork costs 21 yuan while a kilogram of spareribs is 32.40 yuan. An employee with the store told the Shenzhen Daily yesterday that streaky pork was sold for 17.80 yuan a kilogram in May last year while a kilogram of spareribs cost 29.80 yuan.

Pork started to become expensive after the May Day holidays, a clerk surnamed Dong at Vanguard Supermarket said.

"I have never expected such a big price rise," said Dong, who has worked in the supermarket for four years.

The rise in pork prices was due to a supply shortage in Shenzhen, which relies heavily on imported pigs from neighboring cities and provinces.

"Shenzhen mainly imports pigs from Jiangxi, Hunan and Guangxi, but the supply in the provinces is decreasing because prices of pig feed are rising and fewer people like to raise pigs nowadays," said Li Shun, a wholesale pork dealer in Longgang District.

"The prices will remain high for a period of time because it needs four months for a pig to be fully grown and ready for slaughter," said Li.

To guarantee the safety of pork, officials and experts from the Shenzhen municipal agriculture, forestry and fishery bureau made a one-week field trip to Jiangxi Province and signed an agreement with a Jiangxi piggery Monday. According to the agreement, Shenzhen Meifeng Food Co. will import 80,000 pigs a year from the piggery.

According to statistics from the bureau, 90 percent of all pork in Shenzhen comes from outside the city. An official surnamed Zhang with the administration denied some earlier reports saying the pork price hike was due to the government's recent move to close some illegal slaughterhouses.

Zhang said the city would build four large modern slaughterhouses in three years to replace the 16 existing slaughterhouses.

Wei Biaocheng, manager of Shenzhen Meifeng Food Co., a major pork supplier in the city, said the company imported 1.2 million pigs a year from 60 piggeries in Jiangxi, Hunan provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, accounting for 60 percent of all pork available in the city.

Meanwhile, the prices of eggs and other meat products are also increasing across the country. The Ministry of Commerce is planning to set up a "meat reserve" if domestic pork prices keep rising, media reports said.

Editor: Yan