Brazilian pork exporters are now facing an immediate threat – falling export volumes to China, their main export destination, as the country has recovered production earlier than expected from the African swine fever outbreak in 2018.
Nevertheless, China still remained as the top export market in March, however it purchased 41.8% less than the volume it imported a year ago. China imported 34,100 tons out of the total 91,400 tons exported by Brazil.
According to China’s General Administration of Customs, China’s pork imports from all sources fell 64% in the first 3 months of 2022, compared to the same period last year, to 420,000 tons.
According to Ricardo Santin, President of the Brazilian Animal Protein Association, “China at some point would return to full production…. The government has provided subsidies and they resumed production earlier than the world thought they would.”
China produced 15.61 million tons of pork in the first 3 months of 2022, up 14% from a year earlier.
Meanwhile, in the month of April, the General Administration of Customs of China had also suspended for one week the imports of 3 Brazilian beef exporters namely JBS SA, Marfrig and Naturafrig. According to one report, technicians identified the presence of nucleic acid of the new coronavirus on the external packaging of 4 batches of frozen products from these companies sent to China.
