(Reuters) — U.S. livestock exporters hope China will lift restrictions on imports of U.S. pigs by the end of April if tests can be agreed for a virus deadly to piglets, a trade group said on Friday.
China, the world’s No. 1 pork consumer, has imposed “temporary restrictions” on U.S. pig imports until agriculture ministries from the two sides reach agreement on testing U.S. animals for the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, said Tony Clayton, president of the Livestock Exporters Association of the USA.
Import permits “are being held up until there’s an agreement in place,” he said.
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The restrictions are on shipments of live animals to China used to develop genetic breeding programs. In 2013, China bought about $20 million worth of U.S. breeding pigs, Clayton said.
“I know both sides are talking,” he said about negotiations over the tests. “We’re told from the Chinese side that it shouldn’t take long. We’d hope that it would happen yesterday but it’s not going to happen that quick.”
A spokeswoman for United States Department of Agriculture had no immediate comment. The Ministry of Agriculture in Beijing could not immediately be reached.
China’s move to take action on imports over the virus comes after Mexico last year restricted imports of live hogs from the United States.
The virus, which is nearly always fatal in piglets, has crimped hog supplies in the United States and sent prices to record highs. There are over 4,700 cases in 27 states so far, according to the U.S. government. Some estimates suggest four to five million pigs have died since it was first reported in May 2013.
China, which had its own outbreak of PED in 2010, is thought by some veterinarians in the United States to be the origin of the U.S. outbreak, said Chris Hurt, an agricultural economist at Purdue University.
“Any country would be very, very hesitant to be importing live animals from the United States at this point,” he added.
China’s own pork market is seeing sharply lower prices and further falls could come as the market is oversupplied.
Last month, Beijing announced plans to stockpile frozen meat to support the market, where prices have slumped to three-year lows and farmers are losing money on their hogs.
