The latest figures from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) show shipments of EU pig meat declined by 16% compared with the same month the year before.
Volumes of fresh/frozen pork were down by around a fifth compared to 2020, totalling 262,000 tonnes. AHDB said that the decline was “entirely driven by China”, with trade totalling just 90,000 tonnes, under half of the previous year’s level.
According to AHDB, this reflects falling Chinese import demand due to increased production there. The figures show that there was also a slight rise in product going to other Asian markets.
Offal exports were also 9% lower at 107,000 tonnes, with noticeably lower volumes to both China (-12% to 60,000 tonnes) and Hong Kong (-86% to 3,000 tonnes). These declines were offset by increased volumes going to the Philippines (+86% to 11,000 tonnes).
However, in September 2021 EU pig meat exports were 5% higher than during the corresponding period in 2020 at 4.4 million tonnes. Philippines trade is more than double the year before across this period overall, totalling 228,000 tonnes. China trade is only down by 9% across this same period overall, totalling 2.1 million tonnes.
AHDB reported that between January and September, fresh/frozen pork has recorded 6% growth overall, while offal trade has increased by 2%.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
