September 21, 2016

EU pork exports remain strong in July

July proved to be another strong month for EU pork exports, which were up 31% year-on-year to 189,000 tonnes, AHDB Pork reported, citing data from Eurostat.

However, this was just under 50,000 tonnes less than the high point recorded in June. In May they nearly doubled to 226,000 tonnes compared with the same month last year.

Sales to China continued to grow as they accounted for half of all EU exports in July, and had more than doubled from July 2015. Shipments to Hong Kong also recorded strong growth, up 51% from the year earlier, while exports to the Philippines and the US posted smaller growth figures of 11% and 5% respectively.

Exports to South Korea largely stood on last year's levels, while shipments to Japan were slightly down, by 2%, the pork division of the UK's Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board said.

Export prices largely stood on levels from the previous year, and the value of shipments increased by 30% to €424 million (US$472.9 million). Again, China was the main driver behind this growth, AHDB Pork noted.

Pig offal exports suffered a setback in July, declining 3% to 101,000 tonnes compared with the same month last year. While volumes to China continued to increase, by 17% on the year earlier, there was a reduction recorded in shipments to all the other Asian markets. The only other Asian market to record an increase on the year earlier was Japan, albeit from much smaller volumes.