US producers are looking to resume pork exports to China after the market was closed off last year due to H1N1 concerns.

Pork producers are filled with hope after export issues with Russia were resolved, leaving China to be the only issue to deal with, and a quick resolution is expected.

Phil Seng, president and chief executive officer of the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF), said there is a great effort by the US government to work with the Chinese and they are looking for the Chinese market to open up very soon.

In early December, China reopened its market to pork from the US, Canada and Mexico. But problems finalising export certificate language has kept pork exports from flowing and so far only Canada has meet China's certification requirements.

Seng noted that the Chinese look at the market as being basically open to US pork, but there is language on the certificate they are asking the US to provide and that has been a problem.

He said the main problem in starting exports has been their continued concern over H1N1 and their requirements that containers used to ship pork there be sanitised. All sectors of the US industry are working with the government to get the language in the certificates to a point that is acceptable to the Chinese and also acceptable to the US.

US pork producers believed that China represents a huge potential to increase US pork exports and a fully opened Chinese market could take up to 50% of US production.

In the short term, imports are dependent on the whim of the Chinese government and China is using H1N1 and concerned over unwanted additives to keep imports from other countries down, said Dermot Hayes, professor of Economics at Iowa State University.

He noted that China's pork production is rather inefficient - very labour intensive - and they have a better use of manpower in the cities at construction sites. Thus as the people leave the countryside, there is a huge potential for pork to replace the diminishing backyard production, said Hayes.