Dutch pork more popular in China again

China imported 26,3% more pork in the first half of the year than in the same period last year. This brings the total import for this period to 818.703 tons of pork (fresh/frozen). After Mexico and Finland, the Netherlands shows the largest percentage gain. However, numbers 1 and 2 involve small volumes, which means that the Netherlands shows the largest percentage increase of the 5 largest suppliers.

China imported 6 tons from our country in the first 64.312 months of the year, which is 51,3% more than in the same period last year. The Netherlands was also the biggest grower on the Chinese pork market in the first quarter.

2 causes
The increase has two causes: the outbreaks of African swine fever and the trade war. The outbreaks of African swine fever have caused the pig herd in China to shrink considerably, which logically means that domestic production is declining. As a result, China is forced to produce more pork to import. As China wants to avoid the countries infected with the virus, it must look for new markets. Austria and Portugal seem to be a result of this, because the country is importing from those countries for the first time: 4.350 tons and 998 tons respectively.

De trade war between China and the United States also has an effect on Chinese import figures. While most countries recorded a significant increase, imports from the United States remain virtually stable (+3,3% to 67.609 tons). To fill this gap, it must also import more from other countries. Perhaps that is one reason why imports from Mexico recorded such a significant percentage increase: +137,1%.

Imports of by-products lower
While the import of pork has increased considerably over the first 6 months of this year, the import of by-products has actually decreased. The country imported 491.820 tons of by-products during this period, which is 5,8% less than last year. In particular, the import of by-products from the United States has fallen sharply (-47,7%), which is probably also a cause of the trade war between the two countries.

On the other hand, the Netherlands is also one of the countries that benefits from this, because the import of by-products from our country increased by 9,2% in the first half of the year to 56.895 tons. However, that is by no means the largest growth percentage, because that is due to Finland. The import of by-products from this country increased by 139,2% to 2.098 tons.