Share Bacon could soon be off the fried breakfast menu. African swine flu is sweeping across South East Asia and threatening to spread even further after decimating some pig farmers in China, which consumes more pork than any other country. The virulent disease is now creating a domino effect for commodities markets, farmers and consumers. HSBC’s closely watched aggregated commodity price index of 20 key resources gained 2% last month, with the cost of pork showing the biggest increase. Pork prices tracked by the bank’s commodities research unit gained by almost 40%. The cause of this unwelcome inflation is China’s pig crisis. “African swine fever has had a significant impact on the global pork market recently,” warned Paul Bloxham, chief economist for Australia and New Zealand at HSBC in his latest research. “This is having knock-on effects around the world.” The Chinese literally can’t get enough pork in normal […]