The outbreak of African swine fever in US will have significant repercussions for the China soybean market, which counts US as its biggest importer. The highly contagious disease, which does not affect humans, kills almost all infected pigs. Recent cases across east Asia have led to the culling of a million pigs; the reduced number of pigs will result in a drop in demand for pigswill made from soybeans. With numbers not expected to rebound for five years, this could add to pressures on China soybean prices, which have already suffered severely with the China-US trade war.
The outbreak of African swine fever in China will have significant repercussions for the US soybean market, which counts China as its biggest importer. The highly contagious disease, which does not affect humans, kills almost all infected pigs. Recent cases across east Asia have led to the culling of a million pigs; the reduced number of pigs will result in a drop in demand for pigswill made from soybeans. With numbers not expected to rebound for five years, this could add to pressures on US soybean prices, which have already suffered severely with the US-China trade war.