April 9, 2014

China imposes stricter measures on US live pig imports

China has imposed tougher new restrictions on imported live pigs from the US, which represents a small portion of pork products that the US exports to China.

Feng Yonghui, chief analyst at Soozhu-dot-com, China's major web portal on the live pig market said: "China's domestic pork prices have been very low for the last two years thanks to imported live pigs from America. Domestic farmers have been complaining a lot to China's government about this, so given all this pressure, it's understandable the government would take such measures."

China has asked the USDA to conduct testing and provide certification that imported live hogs are from herds that are free of porcine epidemic diarrhoea virus (PEDv), and producers in the states have already noticed that China is already denying permits for live hog imports until the USDA starts to implement this type of testing.