May 17, 2021

China sees slight drop in pork supply as ASF-affected countries panic buy meat

The rising price of imported pork hasn't affected the Chinese market, but China's pork supply did shrink slightly, pork importers told the Global Times on May 14.

The drop in supply came after countries such as the Philippines and Vietnam, two major pork producing countries in Southeast Asia, joined the international pork "panic buying" fever, as their hog populations have been hit hard by outbreaks of African swine fever (ASF).

The impact of stockpiling by the Philippines and Vietnam has not been seen yet, said Liu Ge, an import pork trader in North China's Tianjin Municipality, adding that the imported pork price is about 10% lower compared to the beginning of the year, but still at a relatively high level.

He attributed the high price to rising catering industry demand, which started since the end of last year.

The Philippines, the world's seventh-biggest pork importer before local demand fell due to the pandemic, has recorded a huge supply deficit in pork since ASF swept through the country in 2019.

From January to December 2020, China imported 4.39 million tonnes of pork, a year-on-year increase of 108.3%, but the pace has slowed due to efficient measures taken to lift pork production in the country.

Official data showed that in the first quarter of 2021, China's pork imports totaled 1.16 million tonnes, an increase of 22.11% year-on-year. The top three countries were Brazil, Spain and the United States.

It is expected that China's dependence on pork imports will be greatly reduced in the second half of the year as the domestic pork price continues to go down, Li Guoxiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said.

"As the African swine fever has been effectively contained in China, the current domestic pork price has returned to the level before the disease," he added.

- Global Times