CHINA banned pork imports from Germany on Saturday after it confirmed its first case of African swine fever (ASF) earlier this month, in a move set to hit German producers and push up global prices as China’s meat supplies tighten.

China’s ban on imports from its third largest supplier comes as the world’s top meat buyer deals with an unprecedented pork shortage after its own epidemic of the deadly hog disease.

The ban on Germany, which has supplied about 14 percent of China’s pork imports so far this year, will push up demand for meat from other major suppliers like the United States and Spain, boosting global prices.

German pork exports to China are worth around 1 billion euros (US$1.2 billion) annually, and volumes had doubled in the first four months of this year on soaring demand after Chinese output shrank around 20 percent.

A spokeswoman for the German Food and Agriculture Ministry confirmed the ban, adding that the ministry remained in talks with the Chinese government on the matter.

German farmer’s association DBV urged the German government to continue talks with China about using a regional ban on imports involving only the local area in which an African swine fever case was found, rather than a blanket national import ban.

Germany’s huge pork sales to China involve huge volumes of pigs’ ears, feet and tails. These are hardly eaten in Europe and the ban has created intense concern among German farmers about where this can now be sold, said DBV president Joachim Rukwied.

(SD-Agencies)