Cargill has recently closed multiple feed mills in the wake of the African swine fever (ASF) outbreak in China, Reuters reported Friday.
Cargill does not expect that demand for animal feed in China, the world’s largest pork-producing country, will recover in coming years, prompting the company to close feed mills in that region, a company executive told Reuters.
“This is not a six-month trend for China to recover,” Chuck Warta, president of Cargill’s premix section, told Reuters. “This is a 24-month, 36-month kind of resetting of the world’s population of animals.”
An ASF-driven loss of demand for feed, coupled with the ongoing U.S-China trade war and flooding in the Midwestern U.S., caused a 41% drop in the company’s adjusted quarterly profits.
Warta told Reuters that Cargill will not reopen the shuttered facilities, even if ASF is eradicated from China.
Cargill declined to provide comment to WATTAgNet.
View our continuing coverage of the African swine fever outbreak.
