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Still many unknowns as China battles African swine fever

An official with the National Pork Producers Council isn’t convinced U.S. pig farmers will profit from the African swine fever outbreak in China.

NPPC director of economics Dustin Baker says many unknowns remain as Chinese officials attempt to curb the spread of the disease.

“A whole lot of opportunity exists, but there’s also a whole lot of threat there as well.”

Many analysts expect pork demand from China to increase later in 2019, but Baker points out the U.S. could still be on the receiving end of retaliatory tariffs for the foreseeable future.

He says the worst-case scenario is if ASF crosses American borders.

“This is a classic reason why we had been advocating so aggressively during the 2018 Farm Bill for disease preparedness dollars, and we’re very fortunate to get them in the farm bill.”

Baker is confident those funds will be effectively used to prevent diseases like African swine fever from getting into the United States.