The Mexican newspaper El Financiero reported that “Mexican pork exports to China skyrocketed 283%, between January and June 2019, compared to the same period of the previous year, according to figures from the Mexican Meat Council (Comecarne)”.
The newspaper said the cause has been African swine fever (ASF), which has eliminated almost one-third of the entire swine population of China. For example, between January and June 2018, Mexican pork exports to that country accounted for 2.2% of total shipments of this product, while in the same period this year this figure rose to 6.2%.
In the report, Juan Carlos Anaya, general director of Grupo Consultor de Mercados Agrícolas said that “Mexican pork exports have grown more than 215% to China (by June 2019); the volume is small, but percentage has increased, because they have a serious problem of production loss caused by African swine fever.”
Also, as Comecarne indicated in a document sent to El Financiero, “if we compare the period from January to June 2018 against 2019, there was a 283% growth of exports volume, since about 5,000 million tons (4,875 MT) of pork have already been exported YTD to China and this figure exceeds all those reported in the last three years.”
Reportedly, this trend in pork shipments to China has been recorded in the past three years, with a significant increase. In 2016, they represented less than 1% of the total, while in 2019 it is already 6.1%.
View our continuing coverage of the African swine fever outbreak.
