Pigs are also dying in PNG
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| Image for illustration only. For image text, go to http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Beijing,-almost-a-million-pigs-killed-in-African-swine-fever-outbreak-45992.html (Beijing, almost a million pigs killed in African swine fever outbreak) |
Pigs are also dying in PNG
PORT MORESBY: While the African Swine Fever has spread to all parts of China, hundreds of pigs are also dying in Papua New Guinea’s Nipa.
Nipa villagers have called on the Nipa-Kutubu District Development Authority, the provincial and national governments to quickly help identify the cause of the deaths.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) has reported that the African Swine Fever has resulted in a global shortage of pork supply.
Pork is the most favourite meat of Papua New Guineans and the authorities must act fast to identify and stop the cause of death of pigs in Nipa.
The following is a report by The National on the situation in Nipa and the SCMP reports:
Death of 100 pigs a mystery, pork off the menu
By ELIAS LARITHE people of Nipa in Southern Highlands are warned not to touch, eat or sell any meat from pigs that have died there mysteriously.
The general public travelling to Hela has also been warned not to buy any pork sold at roadside markets.
Nipa Station Department of Primary Industries officer Justin Kiap has received confirmation of the death of more than 100 pigs.
“This is new and I cannot really tell what caused the deaths,” Kiap said.
Villagers at Nipa said the pigs died without showing any signs of sickness or diseases.
They are calling on the Department of Agriculture and Livestock or any other government department to send a team to Nipa to investigate.
The areas which have lost pigs are Egenda wards 1, 2, 3 and Shumbi ward 1 and 2.
The villagers are calling on the Nipa-Kutubu District Development Authority, the provincial government and the national government to help identify the cause of death.
Councillor Peter Hurum and local leader Pip Songuro said it was the first time people had seen pigs dying like that. They said they had never experienced or seen pigs dying in large numbers in the area before and it was a new case.
Former Nipa-Kutubu DDA chief executive Robin Pip confirmed the incident yesterday, saying he witnessed the deaths but could not tell the cause because it was happening everywhere.
He has called on ther authorities to investigate.
The general public travelling to Hela has also been warned not to buy any pork sold at roadside markets.
Nipa Station Department of Primary Industries officer Justin Kiap has received confirmation of the death of more than 100 pigs.
“This is new and I cannot really tell what caused the deaths,” Kiap said.
Villagers at Nipa said the pigs died without showing any signs of sickness or diseases.
They are calling on the Department of Agriculture and Livestock or any other government department to send a team to Nipa to investigate.
The areas which have lost pigs are Egenda wards 1, 2, 3 and Shumbi ward 1 and 2.
The villagers are calling on the Nipa-Kutubu District Development Authority, the provincial government and the national government to help identify the cause of death.
Councillor Peter Hurum and local leader Pip Songuro said it was the first time people had seen pigs dying like that. They said they had never experienced or seen pigs dying in large numbers in the area before and it was a new case.
Former Nipa-Kutubu DDA chief executive Robin Pip confirmed the incident yesterday, saying he witnessed the deaths but could not tell the cause because it was happening everywhere.
He has called on ther authorities to investigate.
African swine fever has now spread to all parts of China
ASEAN+
Monday, 22 Apr 2019
12:52 PM MYT
by frank tang
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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.
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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.
Meanwhile, livestock numbers are falling, with 18.8 per cent fewer pigs on farms in March from a year ago. The number of breeding sows also fell 21 per cent from a year earlier, the largest decline in a decade.
A separate survey from the ministry of the weekly changes in agricultural product prices showed pork had surged 22.8 per cent last week from the same time last year.
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“A new hog cycle has started, and this round could be more long-lasting and much stronger, given the outbreak of African swine fever,” Lu Ting, chief China economist at Nomura, wrote in a research note.
“Pork prices are set to become a major source of consumer inflation this year,” he said.
China has reported more than 100 cases of swine fever to date – from remote areas in the far western Xinjiang region to the southern province of Guangdong that borders Hong Kong.
With a reduced pork supply at home, China has had to buy more from overseas. In the first two months of the year, the country’s pork imports increased 10 per cent to 207,000 tonnes, the agriculture ministry said. - SCMP/The Star
African swine fever: ‘not enough pork in the whole world’ to fill China’s supply gap
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| REUTERS: A worker disinfects a vehicle on March 9 near a farm in Yulin, Shaanxi province, where African swine fever was detected. Photo: Reuters |
18 APRIL, 2019
UPDATED 18 APRIL, 2019
HONG KONG — There is not enough pork in “the whole world combined” to fill the potential supply shortfall that will hit China later this year, market analysts have warned.
Pork exporting countries around the world are scrambling to fill the supply gap in China as an African swine fever epidemic sweeps across the country.
Financial services firm Rabobank estimates that China could lose up to 200 million pigs to disease or slaughter during the epidemic, almost three times the pig population in the United States.
China is the world’s biggest pork producer, with roughly 433 million pigs, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). And the loss of half of the country’s pigs could push prices up by as much as a 70 per cent, a Chinese agriculture ministry official said last week.
Rabobank senior analyst Chenjun Pan said pork production would fall in China this year and next.
“A lot of herd will disappear due to infection and liquidation,” Mr Pan said. “There will be a great shortage. We don’t think any country in the world – or the whole world combined – could cover this supply gap. Even after increasing the imports, there remains a supply shortage.”
China is estimated to have about 200,000 tonnes of pork in its reserves, but this is just a fraction of the supply needed to satisfy demand in the world’s biggest pork market. That shortfall is reflected in the number of Chinese buyers turning to the United States for pork, despite heavy trade war duties.
Before the trade war began, US pork exports to China were subject to 12 per cent import duties. Two tranches of tariffs worth 25 per cent each saw that rocket to 62 per cent. Yet, despite the huge added cost, China buyers started putting orders for US pork products again in March in anticipation of the shortage and in the hope that by the time the shipments were made, the tariffs would have been relaxed as part of a trade deal.
In the week ending March 7, China bought 23,846 tonnes of US pork, about eight times the amount purchased a week earlier, according to the USDA. But analysts said this was probably a speculative purchase and unlikely to have been shipped yet.
“Actual shipments are not that common at the moment,” Mr Pan said. “What we are seeing is Chinese companies making an offer and trying to hold the shipment for later.”
Ms Angela Zhang, head of the business intelligence division at Shanghai-based IQC Insights, said China’s pork imports were down from the US this year.
“According to the latest data from China Customs, in spite of the tariffs imposed last year, China still imported 10,917 tonnes of pig meat and 12,212 tonnes of pork offal [from the US] in the first two months of 2019. However, compared to the same period of last year, the import volumes have decreased by 30.8 per cent and 65.1 per cent respectively,” Ms Zhang said.
Canada was one of the major suppliers last year, the third highest behind Germany and Spain, and accounting for 13.4 per cent of China’s pork imports in 2018.
Mr Martin Lavoie, president of Canada Pork International, an export promotion agency in Ottawa, said those exports had increased in the last few months.
“That is probably the case for every country that exports to China,” Mr Lavoie said.
He said that after the US, China was the biggest export market for Canadian pork.
He added that the industry had not been subjected to any of the trade barriers encountered by Canadian canola companies, such as bars on exports to China over pests allegedly found in shipments. Industry players say the grain bans are in response to Canada’s detention of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.
“It is business as usual for us – our exports have had no disruption,” Mr Lavoie said.
Other agricultural markets are also bracing for impact from the swine fever outbreak, including the soybean trade, which supplies vast quantities to feed livestock in China.
According to preliminary March Chinese trade data, soybean imports for the first three months of 2019 have fallen by 14.4 per cent from the same time last year to total 16.75 million tonnes, said Mr Rob Hatchett, senior economist at Missouri-based agricultural intelligence firm Doane Advisory Services.
The USDA also lowered its estimates of Chinese soybean imports to 88 million tonnes this year, down 6.1 million tonnes from last year.
“This would be the first marketing-year decrease for Chinese soybean imports since the 2003-04 marketing year. A complete understanding of the ultimate impact of African swine fever on Chinese protein needs won’t be known until the disease is controlled,” Mr Hatchett said. - SCMP/TODAY
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