Love for pork may propel China to be top importer of British pork
Print Edition
CHINA’S love for all things pork could soon make the country the top importer of British pork, dethroning Germany, just four years after it opened its doors to pork imports from the UK.
Chinese demand for pork offal, or internal organs, is also good news for UK pork producers as there’s little demand for these products at home.
Though China is home to half the world’s pigs, it still imported 564,000 tons of pork — equivalent to about two-thirds of Britain’s production — and 814,000 tons of offal last year.
“Chinese like two things,” said Mick Sloyan, director of England’s pork levy board, BPEX. “One is they quite like strong taste when it comes to meat ... and they love stuff with bones in so they can chew on.”
Pork exports from the UK to China have more than doubled to 65,000 tons between 2012 and 2014, while exports to Germany — the No. 1 destination for British pork for the last three years — has fallen 5 percent.
Privately owned Karro Food Group Ltd, one of the three UK pork producers with a permit to supply to China, plans to raise exports by 80 percent this year.
Cranswick Plc and Tulip Ltd are also boosting exports to the world’s No. 1 pork consumer.
China is “where the majority of our (export) growth comes from,” said Adam Couch, Cranswick’s chief executive.
China’s demand for parts of the pig that Britons refuse to eat is helping British companies earn better margins on meat and parts that were previously thrown away or used in low-margin products such as pet food.
“It can be very broad, ranging from the head to feet to even shoulders. They do make great utilisation of the carcass than you would find in a lot of other countries,” Couch said.
China has already overtaken the Netherlands as the biggest market for UK offal, with imports nearly tripling since 2012.
Cranswick is also trying to make inroads into the ready-to-eat market in China, where a growing middle class is demanding better quality food.
Sloyan said he expected meat processor Dunbia and Karro’s Cookstown plant in Northern Ireland to win export approval from China in the second half of this year.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
