(Bloomberg) -- A deadly pig-killing disease that's wiping out herds across Asia and scaring farmers into abandoning their hogs could be a boon for Thailand's $3.3 billion pork industry.
That's according to the southeast Asian nation's commerce ministry, which expects to increase pork output and boost exports to plug the gap left by producers from China to Vietnam. Thai authorities are confident it can stop the virus from entering its borders, despite it infecting farms in neighboring Cambodia.
“We see a good opportunity for Thailand to ship more pork and gain more market share in other countries,” Pimchanok Vonkorpon, the Commerce Ministry's director general of trade policy and strategy, said in an interview near Bangkok. Still, it may take some time for Thai producers to boost supply for exports, she added.
Click here for more: Thailand on Red Alert in Bid to Stop ‘Pig Ebola' Crossing Border
The spread of African swine fever in Asia has decimated pig herds in some of the world's top pork producing countries, and analysts are expecting a global protein shortage that could last for years. In Vietnam, which is one of the biggest per capita consumers of pork, authorities are encouraging hog farmers to switch to other livestock, while in China, demand for imports as well as alternative meats has risen as local pork prices rise.
Thailand produces more than 2 million hogs annually and exports about 40% of its live hogs to neighboring countries, as well as frozen and processed pork. The Commerce Ministry says its current export destinations are Cambodia, Hong Kong, Japan, Laos, Malaysia and Myanmar, and it is hoping to add Vietnam and China to the list.
To contact the reporters on this story: Siraphob Thanthong-Knight in Bangkok at rthanthongkn@bloomberg.net;Suttinee Yuvejwattana in Bangkok at suttinee1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sunil Jagtiani at sjagtiani@bloomberg.net, Anna Kitanaka, Andrew Hobbs
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