EU pig meat exports continued strong performance in February

By Bethan Wilkins

EU pig meat exports continued their strong performance into February, with total pig meat (and offal) shipments up by almost a third on the same month a year earlier, to 541,000 tonnes.

Within this, fresh/frozen pork shipments were up by 40% to 365,000 tonnes. The only markets to show an obvious fall in volumes were the UK (-26% to 22,300 tonnes) and Japan (-28% to 20,300 tonnes), when compared with February 2020. These declines were more than compensated for by further substantial increases in trade with China (+56% to 224,200 tonnes) over the same period.

However, larger export volumes have been somewhat at the expense of value, with average fresh/frozen pork export prices falling by 17% to €2.44/kg compared to a year earlier. However, the value of shipments was still up by 16% on February last year, at €892 million. Although prices in China have dropped off a little recently, levels have still been attractive enough to draw EU product, especially considering high US pork prices reduce American competitiveness. In February, the average price of pork exports to China was €2.35/kg. In contrast, pork the EU sold to Great Britain averaged €2.27/kg.

Pig offal shipments were also significantly higher in February 2021 compared to last year, up 26% to 124,000 tonnes. There was solid growth to all the Far East markets.

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