Flooding devastates China’s rural pork industry
One company reportedly under pressure is Aoxin Tianli Group, a pig producer with operations in retail and e-commerce. The company has reported that its hog farms in Wuhan City have suffered damage as torrential rains caused devastating flooding in southern China.
Livestock deaths, contamination of feed supplies and cost damages to farming structures are just some of the effects the floods have had on Aoxin Tianli’s pig business. The company will have to find close to $1.5m to pay for the damages caused by flooding.
“With the help of local rescue and relief agencies, the company is working diligently to bring the operations of our hog farms back to normal while trying to minimise the impact to our farms and prevent further damage,” said Wocheng Liu, chairman and co-CE of Aoxin Tianli.
A record level of rainfall – reported to be as much as 22 inches - fell on Wuhan City between 30 June and 6 July , according to local government reports. This downpour paralysed parts of the city, severely impacting transport lines, water and energy supplies.
“While we and the other 10 million residents of the City of Wuhan are still recovering from the devastating blow of Mother Nature, we are optimistic that much of our losses due to the floods will be largely offset by a spike in pork/hog prices in coming months as widespread livestock losses make it difficult to meet the normal demand for pork in the Wuhan market.”
