[2020-01-10] China increases imports of pork and Brazil reaps the benefits

Source: Macauhub

China will increase imports of pork and release part of the state reserve to ensure supply and stable prices before the Lunar New Year holiday, announced on Thursday in Beijing the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Geng Shuang.

Since 2018 China has been affected by an outbreak of African swine fever, which has killed off a significant part of its herds, and one of the countries that have benefited is Brazil, which in 2019 increased its exports to China.

The Brazilian Association of Animal Protein (ABPA) noted that the disease is the biggest driving factor of increased exports to Asia in 2019, with China, which became the biggest importer right in January, buying 248,8000 tonnes, an increase of 61% in annual terms.

Vietnam, which has also been affected by African swine fever, increased its imports by 82.6%, with a total of 13,540 tonnes in 2019.

“The health crisis in Asia has reconfigured the international trade of animal protein. China, which was the country most affected, increased its capacity to import Brazilian pork with the approval of new refrigerated stores in November 2019. This is one of the factors that should encourage the increase of Brazilian sales in 2020, as the indicators of institutions such as Rabobank point to this framework continuing at least throughout this year,” said Ricardo Santin, executive director of ABPA.

Brazilian pork-producing companies in 2019 exported more than 750,000 tonnes of meat, an annual increase of 16.2% when compared with the 646,000 tonnes recorded in 2018.

The association pointed out that in December alone 76,000 tonnes were shipped, which was a year-on-year rise of 35.1% and was the largest monthly shipment ever recorded in the history of the sector.