The Asian nation closed its market to US pork in late April 2009 in the wake of an outbreak in humans of novel H1N1 influenza, which the media misnamed “swine” flu.

In March, the United States and China reached an agreement to reopen the Chinese market to US pork imports, but it took China until now to begin accepting product.

“This is tremendous news for US pork producers,” said NPPC President Sam Carney, a pork producer from Adair, Iowa. “China is one of our biggest markets, so being able to ship pork there is extremely important to the US pork industry.

“Now that it can be sent to the Chinese market, we will focus on the remaining impediments to exporting US pork to China,” Mr Carney said.

NPPC is continuing to urge the Obama administration to press China to address a number of other trade-related issues that limit US pork imports. Among those issues are China’s ban on US. pork produced with ractopamine – an FDA-approved feed ingredient that improves efficiency in pork production – subsidies China provides its domestic pork producers and a value-added tax it imposes on imports.

The US pork industry exported nearly 400,000 metric tons of pork worth nearly $690 million to China/Hong Kong in 2008, making it the No. 3 destination for US pork. Last year, US pork exports to China/Hong Kong were down by 38 percent, falling to just under $427 million.

In October, at the conclusion of the annual US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade meeting, China announced that it would rescind its pork import ban. Since then, NPPC worked closely with the Obama administration to pressure the Chinese to actually lift their ban and begin accepting US pork imports.