African Swine Fever Decimates Pig Population in Serbia, Price Reaches RSD 750 per Kilogram of Live Weight

The African swine fever has decimated the pig population in Serbia, so pork costs 500 to the “astronomical” 750 dinars per kilogram of live weight, and even more, because the buyers pay what the seller asks for, point out pig farmers.

Bora Suljmanac, the owner of a pig farm from Lacarak near Sremska Mitrovica, said for the Beta news agency that pig owners could set any price they wanted, because there were not enough pigs in the market due to the African swine fever, because many sows had to be killed.

He added that pig farming had been devastated by the low prices in the previous few years, further exacerbated by the swine fever, and that it was no wonder that the price of pork had “exploded”.

– The real price of pork would be RSD 550 per kilogram of live weight, which is how much it costs on the farms, but the owners of smaller farms are using the opportunity and can raise the price every day by RSD 100, because there are no pigs – Suljmanac said.

He added that the price of fatlings could be expected to jump as well two to three months later, because of the difficulties with the renewal of the production due to the African swine fever.

Local fatlings, as he said, if they can be found for RSD 550 per kilogram, are more expensive than the imported ones, but import permits are still not issued due to the African swine fever, so he himself is still waiting for this contagious swine disease to “check out”, so that he could import pigs from Denmark.

– We are now covering the losses in production from the past years, when a kilogram of live weight for a fatling cost RSD 120-130. Due to such a low price, of the five fatling farmers, only one “survived”, so it’s no wonder that there are no pigs – Suljmanac said.

He pointed out that serious problems could be expected in pig farming and that the state should stimulate young farmers to be active in that branch of livestock farming through subsidies.

Dragan Naumovic, a pig farmer from the village of Lucica near Pozarevac, said that the African swine fever had destroyed 80% of the pig population in the Branicevo District and that the price of pigs had jumped to around RSD 600 per kilogram of live weight.

A big problem, he said, is the ban on renewal of farms due to the African swine fever. A month ago, the ban was lifted in that area, but was then reinstated. In order to renew the production, Naumovic reminded, 60 days need to pass from the last case of infection with African swine fever in a certain area.

Until September 7, due to the African swine fever, around 3,900 pigs died in Serbia, but farmers were forced to kill more than 42,000, among which were several thousand sows.

Bora Šuljmanac

Dragan Naumović

Laćarak

Lučica

African swine fever

pork

live weight

fatlings

farmers

slaughterhouses