Chinese imports of pork more than doubled in 2016 from 0.78m tonnes in 2015 to 1.6m tonnes last year, figures from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) indicate.

Pork from the EU made up 1.1m tonnes of Chinese imports in 2016, representing an 89% increase from the 0.58m tonnes imported the previous year.

Reduced domestic production in China has driven imports. The Chinese sow herd has fallen by 14m since 2013 due mainly to environmental issues surrounding production and processing.

The largest EU exporter to China is Germany with 344,300 tonnes exported in 2016. Spain and Denmark exported 260,000 tonnes and 158,900 tonnes respectively.

AHDB figures indicate that UK pork exports to China were up 31% in 2016 to 43,000 tonnes and higher prices in China allowed value to rise ahead of volume reaching almost £50m last year.

Bord Bia figures state that overall exports of Irish pigmeat (pork and offal) grew by 20% last year. China is the second largest market for Irish pig sector, with total pigmeat exports exceeding 65,000 tonnes in 2016.

Non-EU

“As the year progressed, the EU lost market share to the increasing supplies of price-competitive US pork. Brazil also proved to be an emerging threat as, after gaining increasing access to China, it became its eighth largest pork supplier last year,” said AHDB analyst Bethan Wilkins.

US pork exports to China totalled 215,500 tonnes last year, up from 101,500 the year previous. Canada was the next biggest non-EU supplier at 179,000 tonnes and imports from Brazil totalled 80,600 tonnes.

Offal

Chinese offal imports were up 72% last year to 1.3m tonnes. The EU supplied around 50% of offal imports, however AHDB figures show that US export growth increased significantly with volumes trebling to 424,000 tonnes.

According to Wilkins, growing domestic pig production in China in 2017 could reduce demand for imported products and, coupled with increasing US production, could put pressure on global prices this year.

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