Thailand’s pork industry is bringing home the bacon after a deadly pig-killing disease wiped out millions of hogs across Asia.
While overall exports fell 6% last year amid the Covid-19 pandemic, exports of live pigs rose 339% in value as Thailand is one of the few Asian countries that hasn’t reported an outbreak of African swine fever. Shipments of chilled, frozen and processed pork were up 69%.
The decline in overall exports, along with a staggering drop in tourism amid the pandemic, pushed the economy to a contraction of 6.1% last year, its worst showing since the Asian financial crisis. The economy is expected to grow 2.5%-3.5% this year, according to the National Economic and Social Development Council.
At just 0.3% of Thailand’s total exports, pig and pork exports weren’t enough to compensate for the declines in other products last year, Phusit…
