By Hallie Gu and Ryan Woo CHANGTU COUNTY, China (Reuters) – For farmers Zhang Shiping and Bai Fuqin in northeast China, there is little to celebrate this Lunar New Year. Since African swine fever struck a farm in nearby Shenyang city last August, the couple has racked up about 300,000 yuan ($44,712.72) in debt, 10 times what they make in a good year raising pigs. The incurable disease has since traveled thousands of kilometers, striking mainly small farms in the world’s biggest pork-producing country and triggering unprecedented upheaval in China’s $1 trillion hog sector. Though Zhang’s farm was not infected, measures to halt its spread have effectively killed his family’s livelihood.Beijing banned the transport of live pigs from infected provinces in September, part of its “protracted war” on a disease that typically takes years to eradicate. The restrictions crippled trade, particularly in northeast Liaoning province, which produces about a third more pigs than it consumes and relies heavily on exporting. Prices in the province dropped below 4 yuan per kilogram this month – the lowest price in a decade – just weeks away from the Lunar New Year holiday, normally a time of peak pork demand. Zhang and Bai got… Read full this story
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