African Swine Fever (ASF) is ravaging the Chinese pork market, a country consuming two-thirds of the world's pork, but efforts are being made by the Chinese government to improve the situation. ASF is a completely fatal disease for which there is no cure, but the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) says, “The laboratory research of vaccines has made positive progress, and scientific research units have signed R&D agreements with domestic large-scale veterinary vaccine manufacturers” with the goal to prevent a spread of the disease. Regardless of these steps toward finding a cure, the Chinese pork production numbers have continued to decline. To support current producers, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China (MARA) will provide subsidies, both for those able to continue production and also assist those complying with mandatory culling. The General Office of the State Council in China also released a ten-step plan to improve production practices regarding ASF. The plan includes steps like strengthening on-farm prevention protocols and taking steps to "strengthen the management of kitchen waste" used as animal feed. The government also plans to strengthen quarantine, processing, and transportation protocols, and its animal epidemic prevention system. An annual report from FAO and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates disease recovery will take a few years, but also assumes "a return to a steady global increase in production from 2021 onwards" for pork production. For China, the report expects production and consumption will "return to the 2018 level and resume its trend in growth for the remainder of the outlook period," which runs through 2028.
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