The row between pork traders and suppliers escalated after Hong Kong's major supplier of live pigs raised prices by 10 per cent yesterday, just two days after traders threatened to break the supply duopoly.
Ng Fung Hong, which supplies over 80 per cent of Hong Kong's live pigs imported from the mainland, said yesterday that it was raising prices with immediate effect 'based on the current supply situation within the mainland and to satisfy Hong Kong's market demands'.
The company raised charges by HK$130 to HK$1,300 per hundred catties yesterday, taking the total price increase since the end of May to HK$210.
Consumers may have to pay more than HK$30 a catty for pork as a result of the latest rise.
Hong Kong Pork Trader General Association vice-president Hui Wai-kin said consumers would have to dig deeper into their purses and the business of fresh pork traders would also be affected.
'The present price is about HK$28 to HK$30 per catty and it will jump up to HK$32 to HK$34 per catty,' he said. 'Not only will the consumers have to pay more, our business will be badly affected too. It could go down by 10 to 20 per cent.'
Ling Wai-yip of the pork trade's coalition, the Fresh Meat Alliance, was outraged.
