HAMBURG—The spread of African Swine Fever to Germany’s most important pig rearing region has dealt a serious blow to the sector with major markets such as China likely to maintain import bans for years to come, analysts said on Monday.
The outbreak on a farm in Emsland, Lower Saxony is the first in the north-west region where much of Germany’s pig sector is concentrated.
ASF, which is harmless to humans but often fatal to pigs, was first found in eastern Germany in September 2020, believed to have been spread from Poland by wild boars. This prompted China to ban imports of German pork, halting a trade that had brought in around 1 billion euros ($1.04 billion) a year….