The chance to sell unwanted pork cuts to China for high prices was too good to resist. But record-low prices and higher shipping costs due to the war in Iran are now denting Swiss pork exporters’ profits, according to Swissinfo analysis. The year 2012 was one of the worst for the Swiss pig industry. A surplus of pigs meant that 8% more pork hit the market compared to 2009. Despite rock-bottom prices, imports of 200 tonnes of pork were approved in anticipation of high demand in summer. Instead, rainy weather in June and July kept pork consumption down and, to make matters worse, the cost of feed had risen due to a low global soja harvest. Despite – or perhaps because of the bad news – the meat processor Swiss Nutrivalor AG announced in July 2012 that it was building a new CHF20 million ($25 million) processing plant to prepare pork parts like feet, tails, bones and organs for export to Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. As luck would have it, almost exactly a year later Switzerland …