China claims that its pig herd is now down 20 percent from before ASF decimated its stock, but USDA places the country's pork production down 33 percent. Pork meat imports over that same period are up 193 percent. China is subsidizing pig farmers both large and small, but it doesn’t help when domestic corn prices are the equivalent of $9.00/bushel, roughly 144 percent higher than the price faced by U.S. farmers.  If China needed role models for how to expand, it might look to other large producers that have been expanding rapidly. In four years, Russia’s pork production has expanded by 17 percent, Mexico’s by 16 percent, and the U.S. by 11 percent. Granted, these are expansions from a much smaller base than China&rsq...

TAGS – Livestock, China, North America