China Set to Open Door to U.S. Pork?

(BEIJING, CHINA) As the U.S. and Japan announce a new trade deal between their countries, China is still on the outside looking in. With a trade war that spans 18-months and a devastating swine disease, the Chinese are watching pork prices skyrocket. African swine fever (ASF) poses no risk to human health but is 100 percent fatal for hogs. Some private estimates suggest the country has lost about half of its live pork supply due to ASF and culling measures intended to stop the spread of the virus with no treatment. The Chinese people consume 4.7 million tons of pork annually and prices are up 83 percent over the same period last year, with prices for live hogs now 90 percent higher as well. Since the Chinese have not been importing U.S. pork, due to the trade dispute, the government is having to be creative in dealing with public outcry. Just this week, Beijing announced another small auction of pork (about ten-thousand pounds), the second release from government storage this month. Though no accurate count of Chinese storage exists, some industry analysts estimate its size at up to five million metric tons.