Background food production
Food issues highlighted: onions and ASF in Asia
Exploding pork prices in China. Record high onion prices in India. Disruptive bushfires in Australia. They are all events that result in volatile food prices. Boerenbusiness sketches (in the period around Christmas and New Year) in a series of articles the food issues on the different continents. Today it's Asia's turn, with China and India in the lead.
African swine fever (ASF) has held China in a tight grip this year. While the first reports of an ASF infection were already circulating in 2018, the impact of the disease for China became very clear in 2019. A development with a major effect on the global pig market.
AVP distribution
Month after month, new messages came out from China this year. While the contamination seemed reasonably under control in the first phase, things got completely out of hand for many Chinese pig farms afterwards. The ASF infection spread quickly, even more than the Chinese government indicated in the official statements. This resulted in a huge meat shortage in China.
According to the latest reports, the Chinese pig population has almost halved during this period. That is a complete disaster for a country where pork is on the menu of many residents every day. And where about 50% of the global pig population is located.
AVP appeared in more and more countries throughout the year, such as Mongolia, Combodia, North Korea and Laos. Vietnam was also affected and not just a little bit. According to official figures, most animals have been culled there since the ASF outbreak: 2,8 million animals. Against 1,1 million animals in China, which therefore ranks second. Analysts are skeptical about the Chinese data, however, as it appears that the census in China is not reliable.
Rising meat prices
However, this shortage was a godsend for the global meat market. Meat prices rose enormously, which benefited the (European) pig farmers. In the European member states, for example, the German VEGZ quotation rose to the highest level ever: €71 per piglet. The DCA BestPigletPrice was quoted at €66,50 per piglet. The many prices reached over €2 per kilo slaughtered weight at many European quotations as the end of 2019 approached.
Onion prices are skyrocketing
Asia is not only struggling with meat shortages, but also with another agricultural product it became clear that the balance between supply and demand of food in Asia is fragile. There is an onion crisis in India and neighboring Bangladesh. The onion is a highly valued product in these South Asian countries, but the onion was scarce in the last quarter of this year.
Where this crisis started in India, other countries are now also dealing with the onion shortage. Bangladesh is particularly hard hit. There, the price for onions has risen by 700% in recent months. The reason for the rising onion prices is the enormous drought that prevailed in India, followed by exceptionally heavy monsoons. Due to these severe weather phenomena, a large part of the onion harvest was lost.
Without onion no curry and without curry no onion
India is normally the largest exporter of onions. The country has now closed its borders to exports, hitting its neighboring countries particularly hard. Especially because in India and the surrounding countries in this part of Asia everyone likes to eat curry. But, as it is said there, 'without onion no curry and without curry no onion'. The Indian border closure did not therefore have to count on much understanding from the neighbors.
In order to be able to provide its own population with sufficient onion, India has started importing onions. This increased demand also resulted in a price increase in the Dutch onion market, among others. For example, 80 containers were already transported from the Netherlands to India earlier this year. On November 20, 2019, the Indian government decided to import another 120.000 tons of onions from various onion-growing regions.
Jorine Cosse
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