United Kingdom continues to buy pork

Although the pork trade between the United Kingdom and the European Union suffered a blow immediately after Brexit, this effect now appears to have been partly temporary. Rabobank reports this in a report.

Rabobank sees that - despite the drop in exported volume - the consequences could have been worse. In the fourth quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021, the volume of imports by the United Kingdom fell by approximately 14%, compared to the same period a year earlier.

Pretty quick recovery
The largest year-on-year decline was recorded in the first month of 2021. In January, the amount of pork imported into European Union countries was about 59% lower. However, some exporters also seem to have exported extra pork to the United Kingdom prior to Brexit. This is to avoid higher transaction costs.

However, after the decline, volumes recovered fairly quickly, according to Rabobank. As a result, the total volume exported by the European Union is about 11% smaller over the entire year. However, the Dutch exporters exported an unchanged volume to customers in the United Kingdom for the year 2021. 

Rabobank reports that the pork chain in the United Kingdom is in a difficult position. Due to the corona pandemic and Brexit, the meat (processing) companies have considerably fewer staff. On the one hand, travel restrictions caused problems, on the other hand, people are 'lost' to companies in other sectors due to large labor shortages. The bank estimates that companies in the meat processing sector have lost about 15% of their workforce.

For the future, Rabobank reports that British imports of pork from the European Union may end up at a lower level than before. This is caused by higher transaction costs after Brexit. On the other hand, the UK pig sector, and related processors, will continue to suffer from staff shortages. This can have an inhibiting effect on the growth of own production.

Steve Wissink

Stef Wissink is an editor at Boerenbusiness and writes about current market developments in the dairy and pig market. He also follows Dutch and international agribusiness.

s.wissink@boerenbusiness. Nl

© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.