African swine fever: Indian exporters seek to fill China’s supply gap as highly contagious disease ravages pig populations

29 Apr 2019 --- As China continues to get a handle on containing the African swine fever (ASF) outbreak that is sweeping across Asia, China has banned imports of pigs, wild boars and related products from Cambodia. The Southeast Asian nation reported its first case of the highly-contagious disease earlier this month. The ASF outbreak is also giving new opportunities to Indian meat exporters who are gearing up to plug the gaps in supply as China, the world’s largest consumer of pork, looks to alternative markets.

China has culled more than one million pigs since the disease broke out in the country last August and has ravaged farmed swine populations across the country. Live pig stocks are believed to have fallen by around 19 percent in March from a year ago, according to China’s Ministry of Agriculture (MoA).

Now, around 400 pigs are believed to have been culled in the Ratanakiri province in the northeast of Cambodia. Swine across Mongolia and Vietnam have also been infected. The virus causes hemorrhagic fever with high mortality rates in pigs and there is no vaccine, and so prevention is the only defense against ASF. 

China has been forced to cull so much of its supply that domestic meat processing units’ ability to meet the demand for pork has been affected. As the country is the largest producer of live hogs, supplies are likely to continue to be impacted. 

The competitive price and quality of Indian pork, as well as India’s close proximity to Chinese ports, puts the country’s exporters in an advantageous position as China looks to other countries to fill supply gaps. 

The Indian pork sector says it can export both live animal and processed meat while meeting China’s import controls and standards. 

The Chinese government insists there is now a slowdown in the number of pigs affected since late 2018, with China’s MoA claiming the disease is “under effective control.” But, many believe the situation is much worse than officially reported and this is an unprecedented crisis that has global implications, such as triggering an escalation in global meat prices. 

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has already adopted a series of ASF-prevention measures which include ramped up coordination with customs and border patrols at key US airports and seaports and strengthening inspections.

The measures to prevent the spread of ASF to the US are particularly poignant to the US pork industry because of the ongoing trade dispute with China, which has been causing problems for many months now. US pork producers are already facing headwinds and so an outbreak of ASF would be devastating. 

ASF is not prevalent in India, however, all neighboring countries are on high alert to ensure the Asian outbreak does not spread further.

China’s first case was found in Liaoning Province, in northeast China, where 47 pigs died. Since then, over 113 cases have been reported in most hog production areas. 

By Gaynor Selby