⁍ Germany’s meat processors are sending pork chops and bacon previously earmarked for Asia to supermarkets across the European Union.

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⁍ China, South Korea and Japan banned German imports due to an outbreak of African Swine Fever in wild boars.

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⁍ Pig prices in European Union’s top producer slid by around 14% immediately after the outbreak was confirmed on Sept. 10 but have since stabilised.

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⁍ For German meat processors, the overall margins for selling in Europe are weaker than they would be to China.

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– The African swine fever outbreak that has killed tens of millions of pigs in China, South Korea, and Japan has left Germany’s producers scrambling to find new markets for their pork. The country’s meat processors have been sending pork chops and bacon originally destined for Asian markets to supermarkets across the European Union, Reuters reports. “We are seeing expansion but this is not enough to compensate for the losses,” says a spokesman for Germany’s largest processor, Toennies. “We see more German pork on the European market, leading to an oversupply of popular parts such as bacon, pork chops, and tenderloin. This is pushing down prices,” says a spokesman for the Dutch association of meat producers. Germany has been lobbying Asian buyers to allow pork to be exported from parts of the country free of the disease, which is almost always fatal in pigs, but not to people. Such a regional approach is taken in the EU, which allows Germany to continue shipping pork to major European buyers such as Italy. “The whole of Germany really should not have a long-term export ban,” says a spokesman for German meatpacker Mueller Group. “Our goal must be to stabilize prices. A further fall in prices would endanger the entire German pork production, especially in the family-based farms in south Germany.”