End of Jul, there was a temporary supply peak of market hog. However, market hog quantity decreased in beginning of Aug, pushing up the price. Besides, it rained a lot in some areas, blocking the hog transportation, adding to the increase of hog price. As a result, farmers are more optimistic about future market, they choose to keep the hogs, instead of selling them. With less availability of market hog, slaughtering houses have to pay higher to buy hogs, leading to a continuous increase on the hog price.
In second half of Aug and Sep, as the weather get cooler, hogs began to gain weight and supply recovered, thus hog price stopped increasing and fluctuated in recent weeks. In some southern areas, with the application of more strict environmental regulations, more and more unqualified farms closed down, pushing a lot hogs into the market in advance, bringing pressure to the price. For other areas, the consumption driven by mid-autumn festival and national holiday tempted farmers to sell more hogs (they don’t want to wait after the holiday, as the hog price will drop then traditionally). With more supply, hog price decreased as a result.