Catalan farmers estimate losses due to swine fever at €63 million.

BarcelonaThe Catalan pig farming sector has accumulated losses of approximately €63 million so far due to the outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) detected in Vallès Occidental, according to calculations presented this Tuesday by the farmers' union Unió de Pagesos. Specifically, Catalan farmers have gone from earning approximately €20 per pig on average in 2025 to losing €36 per animal following the detection of the disease in Catalonia. These losses are due to the drop in pork prices and, above all, the loss of foreign markets outside the European Union, since pork is the country's main export industry within the agri-food sector. Furthermore, more than 61,000 head of cattle were quarantined in the province of Barcelona. European, Spanish, and international protocols against the spread of the ASF virus They limit the sale of meat abroad And they stipulate that the entire country will be considered affected by the epidemic until 12 months have passed without any new cases being detected. The fact that the sector has begun operating at a loss is causing concern among farmers. "What we can't do is produce at a loss for an extended period," said Rossend Saltiveri, head of the pig farming sector at Unió de Pagesos, at a press conference in Lleida.

The union leader anticipates that the sector will "adapt to market circumstances." "That means we have to restructure and reduce production to avoid prolonged losses," he added. Saltiveri predicts that the "least efficient" farms will be the first to have to rethink their operations to cope with the drop in prices.

The price of pork at Mercolleida (the main wholesale pork market in Spain) in 2025 followed a similar trend to the previous two years, and until the detection of the plague, it was being paid at around €1.80 per kilo. With the declaration of the disease, however, prices fell almost immediately to approximately €1 per kilo, according to Unió de Pagesos (Farmers' Union).

In this regard, they have asked public administrations to help the most affected farms: "The administration must do everything possible to compensate these farmers," they demanded.

Impact outside the farms

The good news for farmers is that, so far, African swine fever (ASF) has only affected wild boar in the Vallès Occidental area, and there are no cases of infection in domestic pigs on farms. All the wild boar that have tested positive—currently a total of 60, after the Ministry confirmed another 13 this Tuesday—were found within the 6-kilometer radius where the first two dead wild boars infected with the virus were found on November 28. In addition to this perimeter, the Catalan government and the Spanish government have designated a second area affected by ASF, encompassing 91 municipalities located within a 20-kilometer radius of the initial point. Within this second radius are 57 pig farms out of the more than 5,200 spread across Catalonia. With the detection of the first cases and the temporary halt to exports, the Ministry of Agriculture has had to negotiate country by country How would the sale of Spanish pork reopen? Some countries, like Japan, have preferred to maintain the ban on all Spanish pork, while others, like the United Kingdom, have only banned the entry of meat produced on farms within a 20-kilometer radius, the same criterion that has been automatically applied to exports within the EU. In the case of China, which is the primary export market for Catalan pork, Beijing agreed to limit imports from farms in the province of Barcelona. In fact, despite the limitations for Barcelona farms, "China remains the country's main customer," explained Saltiveri, followed by France and Italy. "We need 12 months from the last positive test" for Spain to lose its status as a country affected by African swine fever (ASF), Saltiveri indicated, and from that point on, it remains to be seen whether Catalan companies will be able to "recover" the markets they will have lost by then due to export restrictions. "We don't know if customers will buy pork from us again or not," he lamented.