Pig meat imports to Japan have returned to pre-Covid levels across the first two months of the year, the AHDB has reported.
The country, which is the third biggest pig meat importing country in the world, brought in 182,000 tonnes of product across January and February of 2022, rising 13% on the same period the previous year, marking a return to the volumes typical prior to the pandemic.
“Every year Japan imports in excess of 1.1 million tonnes of pig meat and offal, making it the second largest market in Asia,” AHDB senior analyst for red meat, Rebecca Wright, commented. “Over half of this volume is supplied by the US and Canada. The remaining volume is made up from a variety of smaller exporters, but importantly includes Spain and Denmark.
“Compared to other Asian markets, Japan tends to be a high value market with the average import unit price standing at £3,500/tonne last year.”
Ms Wright explained that whist many markets experienced drops in pig meat imports through 2019, 2020 and the early part of 2021 as product was instead directed towards China following a widespread outbreak of African Swine Fever, due to its higher import prices and the value to exporters in maintaining market share, less of this behaviour was recorded in the Japanese market.
Spanish exports to Japan during the first two months this year rose by more than 10,000 tonnes, to over 25,000 tonnes, which is positive for the European market as Spanish production had been growing rapidly underpinned by exports to China, she added.
