It appears the disease ravaging China’s porcine population has led the world’s largest pork-producing country to strike an import deal with the world’s largest pork processing company. From the Washington Post’s Washbiz Blog:
An outbreak of a deadly disease among Chinese pigs has created a business opportunity for Virginia-based Smithfield Foods, which today announced an agreement to ship 60 million pounds of pork to China. Smithfield said it would deliver the pork by the end of December to an unnamed Chinese trading company. Financial terms were not disclosed in the company’s statement.
Tens of thousands of pigs in China have died from the ailment, which is called blue ear disease, and farmers have slaughtered more than 100,000 animals in an effort to contain the outbreak. Pork prices have jumped sharply this year as supplies have tightened. [Full Text]
Last year, Smithfield was slapped with one of the largest fines in U.S. EPA history for failing to treat the large volumes of waste generated by its plants.
[Image: From Smithfield Food’s corporate website]
