Why your Christmas ham may cost 60 per cent more this year

Australians are being warned that their Christmas ham this year may cost a lot more than in previous years, and the price increase isn’t due to the drought.

African swine fever has wiped out a quarter of pigs across the world.

The disease has not yet spread to Australia, but is increasing demand for Australian pork products.

Pig farmer and President of the Victorian Farmers Federation Pig Group, Tim Kingma, said pork prices in Australia have been too low in recent years and this could be an opportunity for struggling farmers to recover.

“There definitely is a shortage of pork around the world,” he said.

“With this world shortage, I think as an industry we need to try and export more and get into the world market.

“The last two years actual hams at Christmas have been fairly cheap.

“Because we’ve had the droughts the costs have been more … there’s scope for those people to come back into the industry.”

The pig farmer urged Australians travelling abroad, particularly to Asian countries where the swine fever is rampant, to take care.

“Make sure you clean your shoes really well so you’re not bringing dirt and stuff in, and don’t bring in imported pig products,” he said.

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Image: GMVozd