The importance of the Chinese market to Europe’s pig farmers has been highlighted again by the release of trading figures for August which shows the country taking over a third of EU pork exports, according to AHDB Pork.
Noting that EU pork exports were up on a year earlier in August, increasing by 10% to 142,000 tonnes, AHDB Pork said this advance was “almost entirely due to the strength of the Chinese market, with shipments more than doubling compared with August 2014”.
“This is the third month in a row when sales of EU pork to China have reached new heights,” said AHDB Pork. “At 47,900 tonnes, shipments were more than 5,000 tonnes up on the previous record set only a month before.”
In addition to meaning that over a third of EU pork exports in August were destined for China, the importance of the Chinese market is further emphasised by the fact that shipments to the other major Asian markets, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and the Philippines, all fell.
“Despite the growth in volumes, lower prices meant that the value of exports was only 1% up, year on year, during August,” said AHDB Pork. “The increasing diversity of cuts being shipped to China, however, was reflected in a 25% rise in the unit price, meaning the value of this trade nearly trebled.”
