China has lifted a ban on the transport of pigs and pork in and out of a total of 23 provinces after African swine fever outbreaks in those areas eased, a senior agricultural ministry official said Tuesday.

The resumed production and transportation of live pigs in the regions are “picking up,” Wei Baigang, head of the Department of Development Planning of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, told reporters at a press conference.

China reported the first outbreak of the deadly pig disease in last August, and a total of 1.02 million pigs have been culled nationwide since then, Wang Junxun, a deputy chief of the ministry’s Veterinary Bureau, said at the briefing.

Both Wei and Wang warned that pork prices may spike in the second half of this year due to tight supply, fueling consumer inflation.

“Affected by the African swine fever outbreaks, large-scale pig farms are cautious about increasing the number of pigs they raise while small, individual farmers are withdrawing (from the sector) at a faster pace than before,” Wei said, adding that the year-on-year fall in the number of both live pigs and fertile sows has exceeded 10% for three straight months.

“We expect pork supply to go tight in the second half of the year and its prices to go up sharply, as the piglet rearing cycle is typically six months,” he said.

Related: More Pigs Die in China’s Last Mainland Province to Get Swine Fever