CHINA, the world's biggest pork producer and consumer, may see its output of the staple decline in the next few months as the earthquake on Monday struck Sichuan, a province that accounts for about a 10th of China's total pork production with 65 million lean hogs every year, Hanver Li, managing director of Shanghai JC Intelligence Co, an advisory company on international grain markets, said yesterday.

"We expect pork production to fall by around 10-15 percent in the region before they can sort out all the transport, water, electricity and other logistics by August or September," Li said. "But the impact should be limited as the hardest-hit mountainous terrain is not the main producing area."