These China hog-farming stocks do fly – and analysts say they are poised to bring home even more bacon for investors

Pigs do fly in China – or at least stocks tied to them. While China’s US$143 billion pig-farming industry has been hit by African swine fever and now the coronavirus, analysts say a number of pig stocks can still gain more altitude.

Without a doubt, the coronavirus epidemic has led to costly shutdowns of wet markets and slaughterhouses across China. And travel restrictions intended to contain the illness have disrupted rail and truck transport of feed to farmers and animals to market.

But some positive signs are emerging on the coronavirus front: businesses and roads are reopening in China, which has taken unprecedented steps – including the lockdown of more than 50 million people in Hubei province, where the virus was first detected – to try to reduced the human and economic costs.

Meanwhile, on the swine flu front, the US Department of Agriculture and academic investigators reported in late January that they had developed a vaccine that was “100 per cent” effective in preventing infection in a test group of pigs.

No commercially viable vaccine is available to treat the disease, which has roiled the world’s largest pork market, leading to mass culling, including of all-important mother pigs. So this could be a very important development.

Despite challenges, investors and analysts are betting a number of the high-flying stocks in the sector will continue to produce mouth-watering gains. The sector has seen a strong run-up over the past 12 months – with one stock – Muyuan Foodstuff – racing up more than 150 per cent.