Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 8/20/15


A new Rabobank report estimates that the culling of nearly 100 million head of hogs in the Chinese herd and another 10 million breeding sows over the last 18 months is the equivalent of the entire North American hog industry disappearing altogether.

The agricultural bank and research firm examined the implications of China’s moves on the global hog and pork industries and believes that the effects will linger throughout 2015 and 2016. Chinese pork production is expected to drop 6.5 percent in 2015, to 53 million metric tons, Rabobank reports, with U.S., Canadian and European pork processors ultimately benefitting from the increase in demand.

"For 2015, Rabobank expects China's pork production to [see] the third-largest decline in production in the last 40 years. This will be supported by a 600,000-metric-ton increase in imports … in the second half of 2015," according to Rabobank Animal Protein Analyst William Sawyer.

"This surge in pork trade could not come at a better time, as the global pork sector is in the midst of a supply glut after many regions have recovered from the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus outbreak of 2014, and a number of trade bans have depressed pork prices and producer margins."

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