China will "quickly resume" US pork imports

 

 

China will "quickly resume" US pork imports and asked that the quality of the products be assured, Agriculture Minister Sun Zhengcai said after meeting with American officials.

 

The US is "encouraged" by China's plan and expects an announcement on lifting the ban "very soon", Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in Hangzhou.

 

China--the world's largest producer and consumer of pork--rejected exports from 49 US states after the outbreak of AH1N1 that began in April. The disease also slashed consumer demand and curbed US exports to major markets including China, resulting in losses among US producers.

 

Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming said after the meeting that China will resume buying the meat from the US "at an appropriate time."

 

US pork exports to China and Hong Kong dropped 70 percent in the first eight months of 2009 from the same period last year, according to the US Department of Agriculture. The region was the second-largest buyer of US pork last year, behind Japan.

 

Total US exports of live swine and swine products to China in 2008 were estimated at over US$500 million, the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service said in a September report.

 

Total imports this year are expected to decline by 66 percent to 150,000 tonnes after China recovered from an outbreak of blue ear disease and because of restrictions on US shipments, the report said.

 

Hog futures, the third-worst commodity investment of 2009, have dropped about 22 percent in Chicago since April 23, when AH1N1 began making headlines.

 

Smithfield Foods Inc., the biggest US pork producer, posted its first annual loss since 1975 in June and reported a US$162.1 million deficit for its hog-production unit in the three months through Aug. 2. Chief Executive Officer C. Larry Pope cited lower prices and lost export sales stemming from the flu.

 

Hog futures for December settlement rose 0.2 percent to 56.050 cents a pound in Chicago at 6:58 p.m. in Beijing. The price has climbed 13 percent this month as the dollar fell and concerns eased about the safety of US pork. Russia, the fourth-largest buyer of US pork last year, ended its last ban on US pork on Oct. 21.

 

American hog farmers have sought government funds to buy pork to keep them in business as concern about AH1N1 has grown, cutting sales. The US Department of Agriculture must make funds available immediately to buy pork to keep hog farmers in business, Rod Brenneman, the chief executive officer of Seaboard Foods LLC, the second-biggest US producer, told a House Agriculture Committee panel on Oct. 22.

 

US government pork purchases worth US$100 million have won the backing of a bipartisan group of 87 lawmakers to support prices for farmers, who have lost money since 2007.