Inside Pigs
South Korea imports less pork
Pork imports from South Korea fell in the first half of 2021. A number of countries saw the quantity exported to the Asian country decimate, but the Netherlands, among others, managed to increase exports to South Korea considerably.
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South Korea imported 6 tons of pork in the first 224.000 months of the year. That was a decrease of 6% compared to the same period last year. The main cause appears to be the ongoing corona pandemic. Imported pork in South Korea is mainly requested by food service companies. They are the ones most affected by the consequences of the corona crisis.
The United States remains the main supplier
Although the volume of pork imported from the US declined, it remains the main supplier of pork to South Koreans. The country exported a volume of 87.100 tons to South Korea, giving it a market share of 40%. The fact that the volume was 17% lower than a year earlier is mainly due to the high prices in the US.
The total volume shipped from the European Union to South Korea fell by 2%. This was mainly due to the import ban on German pork. A handful of other European countries benefited from the decline in American and German volumes. Spain managed to increase its shipped volumes by 50% to 35.600 tons. The Netherlands and Austria more than doubled sales to 14.400 and 11.900 tonnes respectively. Denmark tripled the amount of product sold to a total of 14.300 tons. Looking at just the month of June, European pork exports to South Korea increased by 11%.
South Korea is currently struggling with the consequences of the contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus. How this corona spread develops is decisive for the further development of pork imports. For European exporters, strong imports from South Korea, although the volumes contrast sharply with those of China, are welcome now that sales to China are declining.