China pushes for swine fever subsidies to help pig industry get back on its feet
- Agriculture ministry says breeders need support after battling dozens of outbreaks since August
China is urging rural governments to offer temporary subsidies to pig breeding farms and large-scale producers to help stabilise hog production, as the worst disease outbreak in years threatens to slash pork supplies.
The agriculture ministry outlined measures on Friday to ensure a quick return to stable pig production, including subsidies for breeding farms and support for small producers seeking to scale up.
China, the world’s biggest pork consumer, has reported 114 outbreaks of African swine fever since August, although many in the industry believe it is worse than officially reported.
The disease kills around 90 per cent of pigs and there is no cure or vaccine. Around 1 million pigs have been culled so far to contain the disease although many more could have died in unreported outbreaks. The disease is not harmful to humans.
Analysts forecast that hog production could fall by as much as 30 per cent this year, threatening to send prices soaring.
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The ministry said it was necessary to support breeding farms to resume production as soon as possible. It also urged provincial agriculture departments to release temporary subsidies for breeding farms “as soon as possible”.
The ministry also called on local authorities to issue compensation for farms infected with the disease in a timely way, and to help them improve their farm infrastructure for disinfection and biosecurity.
It said banks should not suspend loans or limit loans for pig farmers or slaughtering and processing enterprises.
Oscar Tjakra, a director of food and agribusiness research at Rabobank, said at a forum on Thursday that China’s 2019 pork imports were set to double from last year to 2 million tonnes
The United States agriculture department’s attache in Beijing has forecast pork production at 51.4 million tonnes this year, down 5 per cent from 2018, with imports seen at 2 million tonnes.
China’s pig herd declined by 15 per cent in 2018, according to Rabobank estimates, Tjakra said.
Zhu Zengyong, associate professor at the Agricultural Information Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said pork production increased in the first three quarters of 2018 but declined significantly in the fourth quarter after the disease began spreading rapidly.
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Other speakers said the drop in output would hit feed demand hard.
China’s pig feed demand in the 2018-19 crop year that runs from October to September will fall 12 per cent and soymeal demand in the same period will drop 5.5 per cent, according to Li Ning, general manager of commodity trader Living Water Trade (Shanghai).
Li Qiang, chief consultant at Shanghai JC Intelligence said he saw pig feed consumption down 25-30 per cent in 2019, and overall feed demand down from 12 to 15 per cent.
