Portuguese slaughterhouse Maporal had sold on Tuesday 100 container-loads of pork to China, where an outbreak of African swine fever has led to the culling of millions of pigs, reducing the supply, Lusa reports.

The Portuguese news agency quotes Maporal Sales Director Marco Henriques as saying his company sold the pork to the Zhuhai Import Frozen Foodstuffs Association for 7.5 million euros (about US$8.3 million).

Mr Henriques said the customer intended to buy a total of 400 to 500 container-loads of Maporal pork by the end of next year.

“We are trying to set up a partnership to cover a bigger area in southern China and increase our connection with Macau,” he said.

Growing demand from China has prompted Maporal to invest 15 million euros in expanding its handling capacity to 20,000 pigs a week, Lusa quotes Mr Henriques as saying.