The growing number of pig infections may mean the failure of talks with Beijing on resuming exports and, as a consequence, a drop in prices – says Thursday’s “Dziennik Gazeta Prawna”.
- The daily reminds that on June 4 there was only one outbreak of African swine fever (ASF), while currently there are five, affecting a total of 320 animals.
- A year ago at this time there was one outbreak of 16 pigs.
- Not only are there more and more ASF outbreaks, but they are also starting to appear in other regions of the country, the newspaper notes.
“The industry therefore expects another year with a decline in exports, although the first quarter of the year looked good. 82.3 thousand tons of meat were exported, which is as much as last year. In total, 2023, when within 12 months it was found 30 ASF outbreaks, sales abroad amounted to 305.4 thousand tons, which is over 13% less than in 2022. – we read.
“DGP” notes that producers hoped to return to the Chinese market, which has been blocked for Polish companies for a decade, i.e. since the first ASF outbreak occurred in our country.
Talks about resuming trade are ongoing. The idea is for Beijing to agree to regionalization, i.e. not to block imports from all of Poland, but only to restrict itself to regions affected by ASF. According to experts, however, it will be difficult to compromise when the virus is present in many voivodeships, the newspaper wrote.
As we read, ASF increases the negative balance in foreign trade in pork every year.
There may be problems with exporting and meeting demand on the domestic market
The daily also quotes one of the producers who points out that if ASF increases, i.e. the number of herds to be slaughtered increases, there may be a problem with meeting the demand on the internal market.
Not to mention exports, where we are obliged to fulfill contracts, otherwise we will face contractual penalties. Then we will have to buy more meat abroad and then export it to our foreign contractors – says the producer quoted by the newspaper.
