13 hours ago

Guy Hedgecoe Business reporter, Northeast Spain

AFP via Getty Images

Spain's pig farmers have seen the price of pork fall sharply as a result of a swine flu outbreak

Jordi Saltiveri gazes across his farmland, on which he keeps 8,000 pigs, and remembers the day late last year when the news emerged that African Swine Fever (ASF) had been detected in Spain.

"I felt sad, angry, impotent," he says. "Once it's known that a country is positive for ASF, other countries will stop importing its pork."

Saltiveri's farm, owned by his father and grandfather before him, is in an isolated spot in the province of Lleida, in the northeastern region of Catalonia.

An old Catalan independence flag hanging by its entrance flaps in the wind, and the sound of pigs grunting and squealing in the farm buildings can be heard in the distance.

The outbreak of the virus remains relatively contained and it has not reached this area.…