Chinese banks offer pork for new depositors
Make a deposit of 10,000 yuans ($1,400) or more in a Chinese bank and you will receive a nice piece of pig meat for free. That's the latest marketing strategy from small banks in China. Attracting new depositors with pork seems to work for Dushan Rural Commercial Bank, Linhai Rural Commercial Bank and several other banks in remote regions across the country, informs the South Chima Morning Post newspaper.
The reward for a new deposit range from 500 grams of pork to a few kilograms depending on the sum deposited and the length of the deposit. "The money is still my own, and the interest is good. I’m happy to receive a piece of pork in addition", one female client declared after opening a new account of 20,000 yuans.
Pork prices have doubled since the beginning of the ASF crisis in the country and the worst is not over yet for the consumers, according to experts. "It depends on what you mean on whether the worst is over because it’s already killed most of China’s pigs. There aren’t as many pigs to kill as there were before. We expect that there will be outbreaks in the wintertime because it’s very difficult to clean the trucks, particularly in the north of China, and the virus is preserved by cold weather. Plus, you have the fact that the infected pigs are continuing to go into the slaughterhouses, and everybody sends their trucks to the slaughterhouse. So the disease is being spread on the highways just as it was a year ago. There’s no reason to think that it’s over with", declared E. Wayne Johnson, a veterinarian consultant at Enable AgTech Consulting in Beijing.
China, the owner of the world's largest pig herd, has lost more than 50% of its swine inventory due to the ASF virus. The situation created a shortage of animal protein in the world's largest meat market with effects spreading all over the globe. Next year is expected to be the peak in the Chinese ASF crisis, with larger volumes of meat imports expected to arrive in the country.
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