China’s border authority has suspended imports of all pork products either produced in or traded via Singapore in a move to stop the potential spread of African swine fever (ASF), according to an official joint statement issued by the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs and the General Administration of Customs.
The ban is effective immediately this Monday. Any pork products arriving in China will be either returned or destroyed.
China customs has stopped issuing clearance documents for pork products from Singapore.
The decision came shortly after the Southeast Asian country reported a case of ASF-related wild boar death on February 7th.
China is the world’s largest hog-producing and consuming country and has an average herd size of more than 400-450 million hogs.
The hog industry took a huge toll in 2018-2019 when ASF raged across the country, culling tens of millions of hogs and dampening feed demand significantly.
Since then, the country has introduced strict preventive measures against ASF.
While Singapore lacks domestic hog production, the ban could affect trade in prepared food products processed or created in Singapore.
After arriving in China in August 2018, the virus has spread quickly throughout Asia, now even impacting countries without local hog production such as Singapore.