US police seize huge haul of smuggled Chinese pork amid swine fever outbreak
On Friday, US border police announced their biggest agricultural overhaul seizure in the US: more than 1 million lbs of Chinese pork were found being smuggled into the port of New York in Newark.
The bust, which involved more than 100 customs and border protection officials and dogs, found the meat hidden in 50 containers of food and detergent products.
“The pork was smuggled, from China, in various different ways including in ramen noodle bowls to Tide detergent,” said Troy Miller, director of New York field operations for the US customs and border protection.
The outbreak is alarming because it comes as China is battling with a deadly outbreak of African swine fever (ASF).
The announcement comes as the oilseed and feed market speculates the size of the impact of the current outbreak in China, home to half of the world’s pigs.
Official government figures show that at least 1 million pigs have been culled in 115 outbreaks across the country since August last year.
But virtually no-one believes those figures, with most analysts claiming the figure is much higher.
Nor does the market believe that the disease is on the wane, despite the official figures showing exactly that.
Looking at official reports from China’s ministry of agriculture shows that there were five incidents in August, rising to 25 in September, hitting a peak of 27 in October and falling away to just five incidents in February.
On Monday, the USDA said the size of China’s herd will fall 13% by the end of the year, saying many outbreaks have not been reported because provincial governments typically do not report the disease to the federal government.
“Some contacts have reported instances where individuals were actually discouraged or prevented from publicizing outbreaks in their region… a hog manager in Shandong Province was allegedly arrested for reporting an ASF outbreak to the national government, after his reports to local government were ignored,” the USDA said.
In addition, the compensation paid to farmers is less than half the market value of the pig, leaving many to cull pigs and sell the pork as uncontaminated meat.
“At this point, it is unclear when China’s government will have sufficient control over the ASF situation to convince domestic industry to begin restocking and expanding. Many in the swine industry are still taking a wait-and-see approach to ASF in making business decisions,” the USDA said.
Miller of US Customs and Border Protection said if the disease spreads to the United States, it could cause $10 billion worth of damage to the nation’s pork industry in just one year.
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