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According to Research and Markets report, with the development of China’s economy and the improvement of living standards, the pork consumption in China is rising. China is the largest pork producer in the world. But pig breeding is costly in China because it is vulnerable to swine fever and the fluctuations in feed prices, which makes it difficult for the pork output to grow steadily. Meanwhile, the residents in some parts of the country like eating pig offal. Therefore, the overall import volume of pork and pig offal show an upward trend.
The Chinese government has strict inspection and quarantine policies on the import of pork products. In Nov. 2018, only 16 countries or regions including the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Chile and Mexico were allowed to export pork products to China. The Chinese government has set no import quota for the pork products from these countries, which means that import companies only need to pay the tariffs and value-added taxes. Thanks to the Sino-Chilean free trade agreement, China gives special privilege to the import of Chilean pork. When importing Chilean pork products such as bone-in pork and deboned pork, a Chinese enterprise only needs to pay 11% value-added tax on the import value. On the pork imports from the other countries, China levies tariffs and value-added taxes according to product type. Relatively speaking, the taxes on bone-in pork and deboned pork are lighter while the taxes on deboned pickled pork are heavier.
In 2017, the import volume of pork in China was about 1,217,000 tons, lower than that in 2016 but higher than that from 2013 to 2015. From 2013 to 2017, the annual import value of pork in China all exceeded USD 1 billion. In 2017, it was USD 2.22 billion, lower than that in 2016. The decline was mainly caused by the shrinking import volume. As the major sources of China’s pork imports, in 2017, Spain, Germany, the U.S., Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands exported 961,000 tons of pork in total to China, contributing about 80% to China’s pork imports.
As the residents in some parts of China like eating pig offal, China also imports a large quantity of pig offal every year. In 2017, the import volume of pig offal in China was about 1,236,000 tons, exceeding that of pork. As the major sources of China’s pig offal imports, in 2017, the U.S., Denmark, Germany, Spain, Canada and the Netherlands exported 1,059,000 tons of pig offal in total to China, contributing more than 80% to China’s pig offal imports.
In 2017, as the third largest source of China’s pork imports, the U.S. exported about 170,000 tons of pork to China, accounting for 14% of China's pork imports; as the largest source of China’s pig offal imports, the U.S. exported about 416,000 tons of pig offal to China, accounting for about one-third of China’s pig offal imports. In 2018, with the escalation of the Sino-U.S. trade war, U.S. exports of pork and pig offal to China dropped significantly from 2017.
According to this analysis, China’s annual pork consumption is around 55 million tons, and is growing slowly in recent years. In 2017, the pork imports were less than 3% of the pork consumption. Rising pig breeding costs and stricter environmental policies have forced many small and medium-sized pig farms to close down, and swine fever occurs frequently. These factors discourage the growth of pork output in China. It is expected that from 2019 to 2023, the import volume of pork and pig offal in China will continue to rise, and China’s pork market will receive attention from the pig farmers and pork traders all over the world.
December 2018/ Research and Markets.
https://www.researchandmarkets.com
