The recent reopening of South Africa (SA) to certain items of US pork is being viewed by American producers as a welcome first step towards gaining “complete access” into the 50-million-consumer market, in competition with pigmeat from Brazil, Canada and the EU.
A last-minute agreement on meat exports from the US into SA was agreed early in January this year, clearing previous health-based barriers to US pork, beef and poultry entering the market. Now, according to the US-based National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) the new agreement is starting to work as intended.
“NPPC is pleased that SA has followed through with a commitment to open its market to US pork,” said NPPC president Dr. Ron Prestage. “We can therefore now sell safe, high-quality and affordable US pork to more than 50 million new consumers.”
Adding that US pork producers had previously been “on the outside looking in” as competitors from Brazil, Canada and the EU sold pork to SA, the president went on to declare NPPC’s intention to press for even more export access to SA consumers.
“While we now can sell pork in SA,” said Dr Prestage, “there is no scientific reason to restrict any of our pork, so we’ll continue to work with the governments in Washington and Pretoria to get complete access to that market.”