Businessweek reports:

Pork occupies a special place in Chinese traditions and cuisine. Suckling pigs, served with their crispy hides, head, and eyes intact, are common at festival holidays, office openings, and other events to ensure good luck. The Chinese have hundreds of ways to serve pork, from sizzling strips fried with chili and green peppers in Sichuan, to minced pork with garlic and tofu. Pork accounts for 70% of protein consumed by Chinese.

So it comes as no surprise that the government is concerned about skyrocketing pork prices that contributed to a 15.4% year-on-year increase in the cost of food, and a 5.6% year-on-year increase in the consumer price index in July, the most dramatic in 10 years.

Soaring pig prices reflect a large contraction in stockbreeding last year due to an epidemic of "blue ear" disease, a form of swine flu that does not spread to humans. The impact even hit demand for animal feed from international suppliers. "The disease in the pork industry cut into our production and profitability" in the fiscal year that ended in May of this year, said Norwell Coquillard, president of Cargill Investments (China), in an e-mail response. He adds, however, that "volumes are recovering now."

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http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/aug2007/gb20070817_664883.htm?chan=globalbiz_asia+index+page_top+stories