How the first ASF case in Spain could impact global trade

After African swine fever (ASF) was discovered in Spain last month for the first time since 1994, trade relations are shifting, explained the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF).

Spain is the European Union’s largest pork producer and the number two global pork exporter, trailing only the United States.

“Spain's production was about 27% of EU production thus far this year,” said Erin Borror, vice president for economic analysis. “That's about 3.88 million metric tons produced in January through September, and that production is actually on a record pace, so up 6.6%.”

Some countries, including China and South Korea, hold an ASF regionalization agreement with Spain. As such, China has only suspended imports from establishments located in the Barcelona province, where the confirmed cases of ASF were located. Likewise, Korea will continue to accept imports from regions in Spain that remain unaffected by ASF. The United Kingdom and all EU member states will also accept imports from ASF-free regions of Spain.

However, other trading partners have suspended all pork imports from Spain, including Japan and the Philippines, which are Spain’s second and third largest non-EU export markets, respectively.

Malaysia, which is sixth-largest market and where Spain holds a 35% market share, also suspended all imports, along with Mexico, Taiwan and Thailand.

“The intra-EU trade continues, and they have, obviously, regionalization, and that trade is practically unimpacted,” Borror said. “So, what's important is the third country trade. And there I think Spain is really a success story and something that the US industry should aspire to, because they were very quickly regionalized … literally within days.

“Only about a third of Spain's exports to third country markets are fully suspended. So that means the majority of their trading partners have accepted EU regionalization — at least the majority based on volumes.”