Three major outbreaks of African swine fever have hit China. This can have a positive effect for Danish pork industry as this may cause a boom in export, according to experts.
Photo: Matthias M. Creative Commons
China’s great pig production has been hit by three outbreaks of the very contagiousness African swine fever during August. This means that China perhaps needs to increase its import of pork, according to Jens Munk Ebbesen from The National Veterinary Institute, Agriculture & Food.
To Reuters he says that this will come in handy for Denmark, as the Danish pig industry has a good reputation of high veterinary standards when it comes to animal health and food safety. This might sound very sweet for Danish pig farmers, as they have witnessed a quite severe downfall in their export to Asia due to the North European drought this summer – and due to a larger and more systematic Chinese pig production, making Danish export more redundant.
According to Reuters, previous outbreaks of livestock diseases in Asia have proven to be good business for Danish food export. In 2004, the bird fly in South Korea turned out to be quite profitable for Danish export of poultry.
However, Agriculture & Food hesitates to declare a boom in the export to China due to the early stage of this African swine fever. On the other hand, Anette Bøtner, professor in Virology at Veterinary Institute at Technical University of Denmark, is not hesitating. According to her, it’s the first time China has been hit by African swine fever.
“I believe the three incidents we are familiar with are just the tip of the iceberg for China’s problems with African swine fever,” says the professor to Reuters.
