- Imports of pork rose 76 per cent in August in terms of volume and surged 150 per cent last month in terms of value
- China is scrambling to purchase pork from overseas as domestic prices have rocketed by more than 80 per cent, causing widespread public discontent
China's pork imports surged 76 per cent in August as Beijing scrambled to boost pork levels to cover a shortfall in domestic supply after African swine fever destroyed anywhere between nearly 40 to 60 per cent of the pig population in the world's largest pork market.
Ensuring sufficient supply and soothing public discontent over the price of pork, a staple meat on Chinese dinner tables, has become a top priority for the Chinese government ahead of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic on October 1.
China's pork imports jumped to 162,935 tonnes in August, up significantly up from the same month of last year, according to data released by the General Administration of Customs on Monday. In terms of value, China's pork imports surged 150 per cent last month, suggesting that China is paying over the odds to buy overseas pork.
However, despite the sharp rise, August's imports are still only roughly equivalent to a day's pork consumption in the country.
A hunger for imported pork is one reason underlying Beijing's decision to exempt US pork from additional tariffs, which in turn helped to de-escalate trade tensions and paved the way for resumption of trade talks.
Chen Wenling, the chief economist for the China Centre for International Economic Exchange, said that China will "definitely increase pork imports" from US and other countries.
The US shipped 5,900 tonnes of pork to China in the week ending September 12, up from 5,100 tonnes in the previous week, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). Outstanding orders from Chinese customers for next year remained unchanged at 8,400 tonnes.
In total, China imported 85,700 tonnes of pork from the US last year, although this only accounted for 0.16 per cent of the country's entire pork imports, the government data showed.
As a result of African swine fever, China has officially lost 38.7 per cent of its live pig herd as of the end of August, according to the data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Independent research, however, suggests that the impact could be even larger at as much as 60 per cent. The number of sows has also shrunk by 37.4 per cent, according to the official data, indicating the situation could get worse before it improves with fewer piglets in the near term.
Facing a supply gap of potentially over 10 million tonnes, pork prices have skyrocketed, triggering wide social concern and anger. Compared to the same period last year, last week's pork price was up 80.9 per cent, according to Chinese government data.
But as China is home to half of the world's pig population, increasing imports might not be enough to cool inflation as the total global pork exports in the first 10 months of 2019 was expected to be 8.8 million tonnes, according to the estimate of USDA. Last year, China produced a total of 54 million tonnes of pork.
Wang Zuli, a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said earlier this month that China's pork imports would be no more than 2 million tonnes this year.
But between January and August, the country's accumulated pork imports rose by 40.4 per cent to 1.16 million tonnes from the same time last year, an accelerated growth compared with 36 per cent in the first seven months of 2019.
Apart from pork, China also stepped up imports of beef and chicken to meet demand. Beef imports in August rose 32.4 per cent from a year ago to 130,619 tonnes, while frozen chicken increased by 51 per cent to 67,074 tonnes.
The country has also eaten into its meat reserves to cope with the pork shortage after the Ministry of Commerce released 10,000 tonnes of frozen pork last week " or around one fifteenth of China's pork consumption for a single day.
Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
