Impact of 2018 droughts affecting farmers across the globe

The country’s dairy farmers, as in the UK, were reported to be lacking basic feed supplies, but it was pig farmers who were facing big economic impact from ASF, which is encroaching from the East.

In the Netherlands, the business outlook has deteriorated significantly compared to the survey conducted in autumn 2017.

Here, too, the drought has taken its toll, but all livestock farmers are faced with the costs of complying with new phosphorus quotas.

ASF was also clouding expectations for Dutch pig farmers.

Farmers in China were surveyed by DLG-Agrifuture Insights for the first time this autumn – and they also have average expectations for business development in the coming 12 months.

ASF in the Far East has already resulted in livestock culls and restrictions on the movement of pigs.

The fear of further disease spread was leading to uncertainty about further development.

But Chinese dairy farmers were even more cautious about their expectations than pig producers and, as a result of significant transport costs, said they hardly benefited from domestic demand for their products.

In Russia, pig farmers were more optimistic. Their market is currently protected from imports by sanctions and countermeasures.

This means domestic sales are protected, which should allow these businesses to develop positively.