Two speakers who presented on “What the next pandemic may bring” offered a sobering picture of both the market cost of H1N1 and the new era of pandemic concern it has ushered in. The silver lining is market recovery in recent months and lessons learned that can help the industry prepare for future challenges.

Economist Ron Gietz of Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development presented data and analysis that estimated the market cost of H1NI, illustrating dramatic losses on a number of fronts, from a major and immediate impact on the hog futures market to slashed exports and overall reduced prices.

Gietz pegged total H1N1-related economic damage at $1.3 billion for the North American pork industry from May to October 2009. “Hog producers were the big losers, arguably to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said.

In the futures market, a key indicator is the lean hog futures trade, which showed plummeting values in the months immediately following the news of H1N1 in late April. “The loss in value was stark,” said Gietz. “Every contract until the fall closed out sharply lower than its trading value on April 24, when H1N1 first made news.”

Persistent media use of the term “swine flu,” which became a major focus of industry frustration and damage control efforts, likely dealt a crushing impact, said Gietz. “It hardly seems likely that a relatively mild new flu strain with the name of H1N1 or perhaps ‘Mexican flu’ would have had any lasting impact on world pork trade, or hog and pork markets, even if discovered in the occasional swine herd.”

BE PREPARED

Markets over the fall and winter for the most part have recovered from H1N1-related losses, Gietz said. While producers and their industry had little control over the H1N1 situation, lessons reinforced included the importance of ongoing risk assessment. “H1N1 has been another poster child for active, ongoing risk management. There no such thing as certainty in the markets and we need to be prepared for anything.”

Soren Alexandersen of the National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease, Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), offered a global picture of current and emerging zoonotic disease threats, further reinforcing the increased importance of preparedness and surveillance in this new age.

Zoonotic diseases are those involving microorganisms capable of causing disease in both humans and animals, and their importance is becoming increasingly critical on both a local and global scale, Alexandersen said. Of particular concern are those considered “trans-boundary” or able to spread across national and international boundaries.

The CFIA is among those monitoring all current and emerging threats, while aiming to ramp-up pandemic readiness, he says. The future is likely to see additional novel and emerging pathogens at a rate of one to three pathogens per year of which most will have zoonotic potential.

“Based on what is known from the past, most of these novel pathogens will be viruses, most often RNA viruses, with an origin in wildlife and often driven by human activities including population growth,” says Alexandersen.

The most efficient way to counteract novel pathogens is to discover them early, says Alexandersen. Canada advocates being part of internationally coordinated efforts to do that under a “one-world, one-health” concept, he says. “We need to have excellent surveillance. We need to be as well prepared as possible.”

The post Pork Industry Tackles New World In Wake Of H1N1 appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

What happens in China will be a significant indicator of what happens in North American economies, including the pork industry, a Chinese agricultural banker told the Banff Pork Seminar last month.

On the pork production side, China produces and consumes half of the world’s pork meat and it’s a marketplace that is rapidly evolving, says Chenjun Pan, senior manager with Rabobank based in Beijing, a leading international banking institution with a strong presence in agriculture. That has significant implications for the Canadian pork industry and the companies that provide products and services to that industry.

Consolidation is a major trend in the Chinese pork industry, both in the farming and slaughtering sectors and the ongoing structural changes will have three primary implications for international players, says Pan. First, demand for technology, knowledge and food safety systems will create opportunities for international players to break into the market.

Rather than focusing strictly on production, the government has also made food safety, genetic improvement and enhanced productivity key priorities, she says. “Given China’s current gap in those areas, the potential for foreign companies to leverage advantages and play a role in China’s pork market is immense.”

Second, import potential continues to grow for specific products such as dark meat, high-end products and specific breeds. “China’s increasing wealth and westernization of lifestyle is giving rise to a high-end consumer segment,” she says. “While still a niche market it is growing at double-digit rates, opening opportunities for western-style processed meat.”

Third, while demand for pork, especially safe pork, is excellent, China is unlikely to rely on pork imports. However, it may import feed grains, says Pan. “The dramatic change in the farming models and limited land and water to grow crops begs the question of whether China will have the resources to feed its growing livestock population in the decades ahead. China is expected to import large amounts of soybeans and soybean meal, and will become a small net importer of corn in the coming years.”

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