HONG KONG (Nikkei Markets) -- WH Group expects the big difference in pork prices that has greased the path of its lucrative imports into China to be sustained this year despite the new coronavirus outbreak and expectations that the devastation caused by the African Swine Flu will ease.
WH Group, the world's largest pork producer, has benefited over the past several quarters despite the Sino-American trade war by channeling pork from its U.S. and European facilities into China, the world's biggest consumer of the animal protein. More than half of the pig herds in China have reportedly been culled because of the swine flu, helping bolster prices in the mainland and allowing WH Group's unit Smithfield Foods to endure any adverse effects because of excess capacity in the U.S.
