Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale said Thursday that it will prohibit the use of the drug ractopamine in the market hogs it buys from farmers beginning in February.
The move comes as publicly traded meat processor expects more demand for pork exports amid an outbreak of African swine fever in Asia.
Ractopamine, a feed ingredient that helps increase the amount of lean meat in hogs, is FDA-approved and considered safe, Tyson said. But countries such as China prohibit the import of pork from hogs that have been given the drug.
“We believe the move to prohibit ractopamine use will allow Tyson Fresh Meats and the farmers who supply us to compete more effectively for export opportunities in even more countries,” said Steve Stouffer, president of the fresh meats business.
Tyson said it notified farmers of the change Wednesday. The company said it will work with farmers over the next several months to begin testing hogs to ensure they are free of ractopamine.
Tyson said most of the hogs delivered to its pork plants are purchased from about 2,000 independent farmers.
Tyson said it had been offering a limited amount of ractopamine-free pork to export customers by segregating the animals and products at processing plants. But it said those programs “no longer adequately meet growing global demand.”
Tyson has expected export demand to rise amid the outbreak of African swine fever in China, where the disease has wiped out nearly a third of the country’s pig population. Pork in China now costs about 70% more than it did a year ago, according to data released this week by China’s National Bureau of Statistics and reported by CNN.
Pork makes up around 70% of China’s total meat consumption, CNN reports, with a person in China eating an average of 20 kilograms of pork each year.
In August, Tyson Foods CEO Noel White said the company expects the impact from the swine fever outbreak “to be a multi-year event.”
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