The pig industry improved despite the pandemic after breeding hogs were reported to be en route to China. The Chinese pig industry was significantly affected by both the epidemic and the African Swine Fever that resulted in the disruption of Chinese pig house operations.
According to Pig Progress, the French breeding organization Axiom sent four planes to China with 3,600 breeding pigs on board. Another shipment is also bound for China with the same contents scheduled for mid-May. The Dutch-Norwegian breeding company Topigs Norsvin also shipped 500 boards to China. The delivery originated from a nucleus farm in France and would be received by a Chinese partner.
On top of this, French genetics supplier Nucleus also shipped 1,000 breeding animals to China. According to the Nucleus export manager, the company would send the breeding pigs throughout the year. The move was inspired by the lifting of travel restrictions imposed by China to help contain the pandemic. Nucleus also promised to send a second shipment to China at the earliest possible time.
The report claimed that breeding organizations have forecasted that Chinese demand for genetics would explode. According to Business Development in Asia with Choice Genetics Jim Schirmer, the company expanded its breeding capacity by building more breeding farms to afford sufficient supply. He also revealed that Choice Genetics adjusted its breeding program and imposed measures to provide more pigs for China in 2019. Schirmer added that the expected China demand growth by the second half of 2020 and for the rest of 2021 indicate that sales would peak during this year until 2021.
Hypor's regional sales director Jeroen van de Camp claimed that the company also expects a healthy business environment soon. He claimed that its France and the United States establishments have converted their multiplication farms into nucleus ones. The farms were said to jointly produce at least 10,000 pure line animals on top of their existing capacity to export to China each year.
Parent company of PIC, Genus, also embarked on a strategic partnership with Chinese state-owned company Beijing Capital Agribusiness (BCS) to distribute genetically-bred hogs to China.
The report also claimed that it is possible to ship breeding pigs from Canada, Denmark, France, the UK, and the US. In practice, however, restrictions imposed by governmental institutions influence the shipments. Examples cited were the China-US trade war, geopolitical tensions between China and the UK, and the detainment of a Huawei executive in Canada. These situations were referred to as trade barriers that closed borders to genetic suppliers between the countries and China.
