South Koreans rush to eat pork as swine fever cuts supply and threatens entire industry
- On Wednesday, tests confirmed the country’s sixth case on a farm in Ganghwa, near the border with North Korea
- The virus decimated herds in China and other Asian countries before reaching the Korean peninsula
Kim Pil-soon owns the popular Daechon restaurant in Seoul’s Bangbae district but she has no idea when her next delivery of pork might arrive.
“When we sell that chunk of pork, that’s it for the day,” she says, pointing to the remaining 7kg of pork belly being sliced by her husband.
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Authorities extended an initial 48-hour nationwide “standstill” order by another 48 hours, banning the movement of all vehicles and people between pig farms, butcheries and feed mills.
On television, government workers dressed in white lab coats can be seen guarding roadblocks and excavators dig huge pits to bury thousands of pigs.
The aim is to prevent the spread of the virus, which endangers an industry with 6,300 farms raising more than 11 million pigs, but the measures have also heightened anxieties about supply bottlenecks.
“This evening, all customers have been ordering pork,” Kim says. “They are not sure whether they can eat pork tomorrow. We buy pork meat at an auction market in Incheon [west of Seoul], where prices have gone up some 40 per cent over the past week.”
ASF is harmless to people but any spread from farms to densely populated areas would make it harder to contain. The illness is highly contagious and fatal for pigs, with no known cure. The outbreak has revived memories of the 2010-11 foot-and-mouth outbreak which wiped out 3.5 million animals – one-fifth of the country’s livestock.
This evening, all customers have been ordering pork. They are not sure whether they can eat pork tomorrow
The price has increased to US$3,300 per ton this month, up 14.3 per cent from January. If AFS spreads further, that reliance on imports could deepen.
However, Daechon is particularly popular because it serves freshly butchered, locally produced meat which has not been frozen, as opposed to imported meat which is frozen then thawed before being eaten. Shortages are now driving up prices. The price of other meat, such as chicken, has also increased as customers, deterred by pork prices, seek alternatives.
“We’re very sorry that pork prices have surged so suddenly because of the swine fever outbreak on September 17,” one apologetic notice reads, pinned outside a Seoul butcher.
In South Korea, roasted pork belly known as samgyopsal (three-layered meat) is often washed down with a glass of soju – a colourless liquor made from potatoes or rice.
At Daechon, Ju Jeong-hye, a 55-year-old housewife, recalls eating charcoal-roasted pork ribs marinated in soy sauce on Tuesday evening.
“Soy-sauced pork ribs are one of my favourite dishes,” she says. “I think I should eat pork more before prices go up.
“Some people are reluctant to eat pork now because of the swine fever. I have no problem with it as the less pork people eat, the lower the prices.”
Lee Ji-hyun, 57, planned to cook soy-sauced pork belly – known as chashu – when her husband returns home from overseas this weekend.
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“I have been keeping the meat frozen in the refrigerator, which I bought before the outbreak was reported,” she says. “Now I wonder whether I have to get rid of it even though I know the virus does not harm people.”
South Korea’s spy agency told the country’s parliament this week the disease has spread to nearly all parts of North Korea. Pyongyang has suspended contacts with Seoul in recent months in response to joint military drills with the US, complicating efforts to prevent the spread of the disease.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
