U.S. meat companies are changing how they source pigs in a bid to target Chinese demand, after an African swine fever outbreak decimated the Asian nation’s hog herd and caused an acute pork shortage.

A unit of Arkansas-based Tyson Foods Inc. became the latest supplier to say it will prohibit ractopamine in hogs it buys from farmers, as it seeks to eliminate the feed additive banned by China from its supply chain. The move positions the companies to step up exports to fill the shortfall, as China negotiates to end an 18-month trade war with the United States.

“This paves the way for rapid and increasing shipments to China,” said Dennis Smith, a senior livestock analyst and broker with Archer Financial Services. With the African swine fever disease decimating hog herds across Asia, Vietnam and South Korea are also likely to need more pork, while North Korea is also reportedly having hog problems, he said.

Swine fever is spreading across Asia, infecting millions of pigs and causing unprecedented losses. Hardest hit is China, home to half of the world’s hogs, where prices of pork have soared. The nation’s companies have bought U.S. agricultural products including 20 million tons of soybeans and 700,000 tons of pork so far this year and will accelerate its purchases, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters Tuesday last week.

China suspended meat imports from Canada earlier this year after detecting ractopamine in a shipment from a Quebec-based processor. While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the feed additive’s use in 1999, China has banned it since 2002, arguing the drug can harm people who consume meat raised with it.

Earlier this month, Brazilian meat company JBS SA said its U.S. operations would eliminate ractopamine, which is banned by several other nations as well, from its pork supply chain to maximize export opportunities. Smithfield Foods Inc., owned by China’s WH Group Ltd., also doesn’t use the drug.

“They can sell to China, or sell to the countries the EU and other suppliers used to sell to,” said Alan Brugler, president of Brugler Marketing & Management LLC. There are “way more” nations that ban ractopamine than those that allow it, he said, adding that maintaining a split supply chain where only some meat is free of ractopamine adds to costs.

Tyson has told suppliers feed samples will be taken from farms and sent to a lab to test for ractopamine, a spokesman for the company confirmed.

(SD-Agencies)