China’s pork industry under threat as African swine fever spreads to all provinces
- Island province of Hainan reports first cases of the highly contagious disease
- Prices surge as the virus, which is deadly to pigs, causes supply disruption
African swine fever, which is deadly to pigs but not harmful to humans, has now spread to all Chinese mainland provinces since the first case was confirmed in August, posing a serious threat to the hog industry and raising concerns about consumer inflation.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on Sunday said 146 pigs had died from the highly contagious virus at six farms on the southernmost province of Hainan. The first confirmed cases on the tropical island were reported on Friday, when officials said 77 pigs had died from the disease at four farms.
The cases in Hainan mean the virus has spread to all 31 mainland provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in less than nine months since it was first confirmed at a pig farm not far from China’s border with Russia.
China raises about half the world’s pigs, and the spread of African swine fever is causing huge disruption to the supply of pork in the country. Financial services firm Rabobank estimated that up to 200 million pigs – nearly half the number in China – could be culled or die from the disease during the epidemic, saying there was not enough pork in “the whole world combined” to fill the potential supply shortfall.
The average wholesale hog price increased 6.3 per cent in March from the previous month, and it was up 7.6 per cent from a year ago, according to ministry data on 400 counties across China.