Pig disease outbreak pushes up global pork prices BEIJING—

The Absa Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the first quarter of 2020, released on Wednesday, averaged 45.9 index points, compared to 47.6 in the fourth quarter of 2019. The index is compiled by the Bureau for Economic Research (BER) and sponsored by Absa.

The bank said disruptions to global supply chains saw suppliers record slower delivery times in the first quarter of the year. And while the index report did not specifically attribute these delays to the coronavirus pandemic, many companies have fingered the global outbreak for disruptions.

Absa and BER said the slower delivery times - which ironically improved the supplier deliveries subindex in March as delays are usually an indication that suppliers are busier under normal circumstances - were observed in PMIs worldwide.

They said without this ‘false boost’ in the supplier deliveries fell to 29.1 index points in said as she shopped at a Hong Kong market.

African swine fever doesn’t harm humans but is fatal and spreads quickly among pigs.

It was first reported in August in China’s northeast. Since then, 1 million pigs have died and the disease has spread to 31 of China’s 34 provinces, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

The outbreak’s scale is unprecedented, said Dirk Pfeiffer, a veterinary epidemiologist at the City University of Hong Kong.

“This is probably the most complex animal disease we have ever had to deal with,” Pfeiffer said.

China’s shortfall is likely