Dr. Mike Lemmon's pigs, each valued between $2,500 and $5,000, were supposed to be on a plane bound for Hangzhou, China, from St. Louis in April, where’d they spend the flight snoring, play fighting and snacking on oats and husked corn before taking up residence at Chinese hog farms, reported Reuters.
Instead, many went to a local Indiana slaughterhouse for less than $200 each after the Chinese buyer cancelled the order within a week of China implementing retaliatory tariffs against the US in April.
China is one of the biggest importers of American breeding pigs and other livestock genetic material such as cattle semen. These lucrative niche export markets had been growing, but dried up since US President Donald Trump started a trade war with Beijing.
US farmers and exporters said the dispute has already cost them millions of dollars and jeopardized prized trade relationships that took years to develop.
Though Washington and Beijing agreed to pause tariffs last week, exporters said Trump's unpredictable trade policy has caused their companies long-term damage and could encourage China and other major buyers to turn to foreign rivals like Denmark.
"We've got brand damage now. There's not a week that goes by without clients asking what’s happening with the US," said Tony Clayton, owner of Clayton Agri-Marketing, a Missouri-based livestock exporting company.
"I don’t know how we can put this back together. This is long-term damage," he said.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai said the administration was "working around the clock to secure billions of dollars in even more opportunities with our other trading partners."
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