Amid Shortage, SAR Seeks More Pigs From Mainland

The SAR government has asked the mainland authorities to step up supplies of live pigs to combat a shortage that had led to a sharp increase in the price of pork and put the future of a private slaughterhouse in doubt.

Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan made the announcement after reports emerged that the management of the Tsuen Wan Slaughterhouse were seeking to apply for a change of use of the site, one of only three slaughterhouses in the SAR.

Chan said supplies had not recovered since a case of African swine fever forced the closure of the Sheung Shui Slaughterhouse and a cull of 6,000 pigs in May.

She said officials were in talks with their mainland counterparts over supplies and were talking to Tsuen Wan Slaugherhouse management about ways to keep the facility open.

A huge outbreak of African swine fever, which is deadly to pigs but does not infect humans, has forced a massive cull of pigs on the mainland and in several other Asian countries.