EU pork exports to China have halved during the first nine months of this year, compared with last year. Year-to-date exports to China have totalled 1.07 million tonnes, a decrease of 1 million tonnes (48.4%) compared with last year.
The largest decrease was seen in fresh and frozen pork, back 888,000 tonnes (59.6%), followed by a decrease in offal by 114,500 tonnes (19.7%) on 2021 levels.
AHDB trainee analyst Charlotte Forkes-Rees said AHDB’s EU short term outlook was forecasting that exports would decrease overall by 17% in 2022, with further reduction seen into 2023 largely due to decreased demand by China due to recovery of their domestic pig herd. Currently, this appears to be an accurate assumption.
In the year-to-date, exports to the UK, the EU’s second largest pork export market, have totalled 589,900 tonnes, back 2,400 tonnes (0.4%) on 2021. Fresh and frozen pork made up the majority, with 230,700 tonnes entering the UK. These exports are at a lower level than last year, down 5.4% (13,100 tonnes), however processed pigmeat and bacon have seen uplifts.
Southeast Asian countries (the Philippines, Japan and South Korea) are the next largest export markets. Although at much lower total volumes than China and the UK, they are all showing positive growth year to date. This contributes an additional 225,000 tonnes of exported product when compared to 2021.
September saw 415,600 tonnes of fresh and frozen pig meat (including offal) exported from the EU, slightly up on August, but a decrease of 13,900 tonnes (3.2%) on September 2021.
 Imports
In the year to date (Jan-Sept), there has been 127,300 tonnes of fresh and frozen pig meat imported by the EU, 27,500 tonnes (27.6%) up on the same period last year.
The UK has accounted for 81.2% of the market share, supplying the EU with 103,300 tonnes. Switzerland is the next largest supplier and in the year-to-date has supplied the EU with less than 9,000 tonnes of pig meat.
Increases were seen across all categories of fresh and frozen pork imported from the UK with the uplift in imports accounting for almost the entirety of the increased EU imports seen year-to-date. Research by Aston University indicated that Brexit legislation impacted trade in early 2021, when monthly imports from the UK dropped considerably, however the market continues to return towards earlier trading trends in a year-on-year uplift, albeit at a slight decrease compared with 2020.e.
EU Imports of fresh and frozen pig meat (including offal) for September totalled 14,100 tonnes, up 1,150 tonnes (8.9%) on August and up 979 tonnes (7.5%) on September 2021.