June 15, 2009

Despite an overall decline in pork import in the first four months of the year, China's import price of fresh and chilled pork rose sharply on-month in April 2009.

China imported much more pork from the US in April, surpassing import from the EU for the first time.

According to a China Customs report, China imported 44,000 tonnes of fresh and chilled pork in the first four months, an on-year decrease of 61.7 percent. The imports were valued at US$47.1 million, which was a drop of 69.9 percent compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, the average import price of pork fell 21.5 percent on-year to US$1,076 per tonne during the period.

In April, the pork import volume reached 11,000 tonnes, an on-year drop of 63.2 percent while the import value dipped 60.8 percent on-year to US$13.59 million. However, the average import price rebounded by 6.5 percent on-year to US$1,186 per tonne.

Guangdong, Jiangsu and Shanghai were the top pork importing regions in China in the first four months.