BEIJING — China's pork prices has kept retreating over the past weeks as hog production gradually picks up and starts to reverse the upward trend.

According to monitoring by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, China's hog production and sales have basically recovered in March, with pork prices retreating for eight consecutive weeks.

China currently has more than 370,000 pig farming businesses in operation. Since March, China added 18,000 pig farming enterprises, surging 131 percent from the same period last year, Securities Journal reported, citing information from Tianyancha.com, an online query platform for enterprise information.

"China is now seeing a transition from relatively tight supplies to a more balanced situation," Zhu Zengyong, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), told the journal.

Information from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs showed China's sow herd in 400 monitored counties, which has been expanding steadily since October last year, grew 2.8 percent month-on-month in March, quickening from the 1.7 percent expansion in February and 1.2-percent in January.

Zhu said the rapid recovery was mainly led by large-scale and standardized pig farms, which moved faster than family farms.

Regarding the future price movements of the staple meat in China, Zhu said there are still uncertainties, but in the short term price will be more affected by seasonal consumption factors.