Yahoo Finance Deathly reason why Christmas hams could cost 60% more
Australians hoping to tuck into Christmas ham this December could be forced to pay 60 per cent more due to a pork shortage.
Related story: Pig with swine fever washes up in Taiwan amid fresh China outbreak
Related story: Swine Fever puts a premium on Aussie meat
Related story: China reshapes global meat markets as swine fever rages
African swine fever has hit pig herds in Asia and Europe, pushing Australian exports up, Victorian Farmers Federation president Tim Kimgma told 3AW.
This, combined with Australian droughts mean prices could surge up to 60 per cent.
“There definitely is a shortage of pork around the world. The last two years, the actual hams at Christmas have been fairly cheap,” Kingma said.
“Because we’ve had the droughts, the costs have been more.
“We’ve actually lost over 10 per cent more of the industry – peak family farmers have gone out, so there is scope to improve and for those people to come back into the industry.”
He said the last two years have seen hams offered at “fairly cheap” prices.
“With this world shortage, I think as an industry we need to try and export more and get into the world market,” he said.
“There’s scope for those people to come back into the industry.”
Kingma’s warning coincides with Rabobank’s Global Animal Protein report for 2020, released on Tuesday.
The report found that the fever is overwhelming the global market, but could see Aussie farmers benefit.
“The drop in pork production is driving a hole in the global protein space that simply cannot be met, and this is despite increases in production particularly out of North America and Brazil,” said Rabobank senior animal proteins analyst Angus Gidley-Baird.
The infectious virus is untreatable and kills within days, after it is contracted through direct contact or infected meat. The disease does not affect humans.
If the disease were to break out in Australia, it could cost the pig industry $2 billion, with Kingsma encouraging travelling Australians to clean their shoes well before reentering the country, to avoid bringing in “dirt and stuff”, and to also avoid bringing in pig products.
China has killed millions of pigs in 2019 to attempt to slow the spread of the disease which is thought to have already claimed the lives of 25 per cent of the pig population.
With AAP.
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