What Restaurants Need to Know About African Swine Fever

2 Min Read By Andy Rosenbloom

"Ask the Expert” features advice from Consolidated Concepts Inc.

Please send questions for this column to Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine Executive Editor Barbara Castiglia at bcastiglia@modernrestaurantmanagement.com.

Q: I’ve been reading about the swine fever and its impact on operators. What can I do off-set costs and protect my brand and menu?A: Among the many issues that restaurants get to worry about the upcoming season one looms quite large -- pork prices.  This year, pork prices are being driven up not only by our nation's Chinese trade war, but also by an epidemic of African Swine Fever that is plaguing Asian hog markets.

Most analysts predict that protein prices are likely to rise for the second half of 2019 and into 2020. 

Now to be clear, ASF is not a risk to human health, but how this unfortunate pork situation will affect restaurants remains to be seen. Most analysts predict that protein prices are likely to rise for the second half of 2019 and into…