We haven’t been paying sharp attention to the African swine fever epidemic, which surprises Al Mussell, head of research at Agri-Food Economic Systems in Guelph. “I don’t think people have come around to what this could mean.”China has lost about 30 per cent of its pork production, according to one report, the equivalent to Europe’s entire annual pork supply. In a single week an unprecedented 77,000 tonnes of pork were exported to China, a vast draw on U.S. production as China looks to replace pork production shortfalls. Swine fever, the bank reports, is reshaping the global industry. “What happened was you got this astonishing spike led by wheat,” Mussell says.

Source: thestar April 15, 2019 09:56 UTC