| China's wholesale pork prices up 70 percent |
SHANGHAI, July 17 (AP) -- Wholesale prices of pork, China's staple meat, have jumped 75 percent in the last year, state media reported Tuesday.
Xinhua News Agency, quoting the Ministry of Agriculture, said the price increase included a nearly 30 percent jump in the month to July 11.
It attributed the price increased to greater costs for feed and because of outbreaks of blue ear disease.
The disease has killed nearly 40,000 pigs in China this year. Many farmers have stopped raising pigs for fear they might be stricken by the illness, authorities say.
The disease, also called porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, was first identified in the United States in 1987, according to the Web site of the World Organization for Animal Health.
The disease does not affect people.
Xinhua did not say how much retail prices had risen.
China's leaders are especially concerned about soaring prices for pork, and the Cabinet has held an emergency session to discuss it.
In May, Premier Wen Jiabao ordered local governments to increase food assistance for low-income families and to offer farmers subsidies to encourage pig-rearing.
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