Market Morsel: Aporkcalypse now

Market Morsel

While Covid-19 has been grabbing all the virus headlines African Swine Fever (ASF) has continued it’s march into western Europe. Just this week it was announced that Germany has the virus in their wild boar population. China was quick to announce the suspension of pork imports from Germany as they continue to battle with the rebuild of their pork herd.

Analysis of the gap in meat protein in China due to their reduced pork production shows that in 2020 it is expected their meat consumers will be nearly 25 million tonne short. China has been busy increasing domestic meat production, particularly of chicken. In addition, they have been importing meat protein from multiple source nations.

Despite the increased imports and additional domestic meat production it is estimated there will still be a 17 million tonne gap in their meat protein requirements this year. It is important to note that there isn’t any one meat type nor country that can fill this void.