A recent outbreak of the African Swine Fever (ASF) virus in South Africa is posing a threat to the country’s swine industry and could subsequently affect the GDP of its already fragile economy. In recent days, the Ministry of Agriculture reported cases of ASF in the Western Cape, Free State, Eastern Cape and Gauteng provinces of the country.
According to a statement by Ivan Meyer, Western Cape’s Agriculture Minister, “A survey to determine the extent of the disease’s spread in Mfuleni and the immediate surrounding area has already been initiated and will include the collection of blood samples from selected sick pigs from suspect farms.”
The ASF, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is not a public health threat and does not affect humans. Rather, it is a disease of pigs only, and cannot affect non-swine pets or other livestock. Also, there is currently no cure or vaccine for the virus, making it a major threat to pig production, food security and biodiversity globally.
However, the latest ASF outbreak could gravely affect the annual contributions of the pork industry to the meat sector as the country consumes a large portion of its produce. It contributes 7 percent to the country’s total meat consumption, as the rising cost of meat and lamb had made the product the country’s alternative choice. The industry contributes about 2.1 percent of gross revenue to the agricultural sector as the volume of production and the price received by farmers determines the gross value of production.
The pork market is one of the smallest industries in the country’s agricultural sector, slaughterings less than three million pigs per year (as of 2018), and accounting for about 0.2 percent of total global pork production. It is a small player in the global pork market, but began to gain regional significance as bilateral trade between several countries increased before the wake of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.
According to a report, South Africa exports about 3 percent to 4 percent of processed pork products, with Mozambique as its key market. It has recorded large numbers of informal traders from the neighbouring country who buy fresh pork meat to be resold in Mozambique. The latest disease outbreak is bound to cause a decline in the swine industry and threaten the livelihoods of hundreds of swine farmers in South Africa.
