October 22, 2019

 

China claims buying 700,000 tonnes of US pork in 2019, seemingly contradicting US data

 

 

Companies in China have already bought 700,000 tonnes of pork and 700,000 tonnes of sorghum from the United States in 2019, a foreign spokesman said on October 15.

 

However, the announcement ostensibly contradicted US government which revealed smaller pork sales.

 

During a daily press briefing, spokesman Geng Shuang said that China has also acquired 320,000 tonnes of cotton, 230,000 tonnes of wheat and 20 million tonnes of soybeans from the US. The country's buying of US farm goods is one of the key demands pushed by US President Donald Trump as the countries remain locked in a trade war.

 

Trump said on October 11 that China had agreed to purchase US$40 billion to US$50 billion worth of US agricultural goods in a first phase of an agreement to end the trade war.

 

Based on US Census Bureau trade data, pork exports stood at 294,453 tonnes from January to August this year.

 

Weekly US Department of Agriculture (USDA) export sales data indicates more recent buying has lifted China's pork purchase total to around 300,000 tonnes for shipment this year and about 135,000 tonnes for delivery in 2020.

 

The divergent data from China and the US added to confusion in the US livestock market over whether closely followed weekly US export sales data includes hog carcasses, which are preferred by Chinese importers over other cuts.

 

"There's been a lot of confusion out there about whether carcasses are covered or are not covered," a USDA official who was not authorised to speak to the press told Reuters on the sidelines of a USDA data users meeting in Washington.

 

"What's covered is muscle cuts. Whether people interpret that as including carcasses or not is a question that's out there that we want to clarify," said the official.

 

China's pork imports from all origins for the first nine months of the year were 1.33 million tonnes, up 43.6% from the same period a year earlier, Chinese customs data showed on October 14.

 

USDA also confirmed a net 1.18 million tonnes in soybean sales to China in the week ended October 3.

 

Purchases booked by Chinese firms may not all get shipped, one analyst cautioned.

 

"Not all of the pork would be delivered to China this year and it is likely that some of the booking gets canceled later," said Jim Huang, chief executive of China-America Commodity Data Analytics, an independent agriculture consultancy.

 

- Reuters