December 3, 2007

US pork exports to EU increase
 

US pork exports to the EU are increasing strongly as they benefit from a weak dollar vis-a-vis the Euro and simplified EU quota administration rules.

The paradox is that these increased exports occur in an EU pork oversupply situation and while the European Commission approved a scheme to temporarily remove pork from the EU market, according to a US Department of Agriculture attache report posted Friday on the Foreign Agricultural Services Web site.

An increasing price differential, mostly as a result of an increasing US dollar/Euro exchange rate in recent months, is contributing to increased exports of US pork to the EU. Commission Regulation No 1301/2006 laying down new common rules for the administration of tariff quotas for agricultural products and new specific administration rules for the Europe Agreement quota in Commission Regulation No 806/2007, and for the US specific pork quota in Commission Regulation No 812/2007 have also enhanced US pork exports by simplifying licensing application procedures.

While EU pork imports already increased by more than 50 percent in the first half of 2007 compared to 2006, the pace of EU pork imports accelerated after the summer of 2007 with a year on year increase of 70 percent. US pork exports to the EU in August 2007 increased more than 2.5 fold.