EU Pork Exports Stagnate in October
EU - EU fresh/frozen pork exports showed only marginal year-on-year growth during October, increasing by just over half a percent to stand at a shade under 180,000 tonnes.Nonetheless, higher pig prices in 2016 translated into increased unit prices, resulting in the overall value of pork exports during October climbing 11 per cent on the year to reach €457 million.
Growth was restricted due to a drop in volumes shipped to the two main destinations for exported EU pork: China and Japan. At 57.6 thousand tonnes, Chinese volumes were back 7 per cent on October last year, making this was the first month where shipments were lower than year earlier levels since January 2015.
Exports were likely impacted by the increasing availability of competitively-priced pork from the Americas, while demand from China has slowed in recent months. However, declining shipments to the primary markets were offset by increasing exports to South Korea and Hong Kong, which were up 62 per cent and 30 per cent on the year respectively.
Conversely, offal exports continued to be above year earlier levels during October. At 121 thousand tonnes, the volume was 13 per cent higher than during the month last year.
China and Hong Kong spearheaded this growth and accounted for nearly 80 per cent of the total. Though from a smaller base, shipments to the high-value Japanese market also more than doubled on the year. When coupled to higher average unit prices, this meat the overall value of EU offal exports during October was €167.5 million.