Compared with the price a year ago, the price of pork sold in all major regions of the mainland has dropped significantly. On the one hand, thanks to the increased pig breeding efforts in various parts of the mainland, the number of self-produced pork has increased to a large extent, which has greatly eased the supply and demand relationship of pork.
Taking 2021 as an example, the number of pigs produced in the country has climbed rapidly to 67.12 million heads, an increase of 27.4% year-on-year; pork production has reached 52.96 million tons, a year-on-year growth rate of 28.8%. By the first quarter of this year, the national pig production was 196 million heads, an increase of 14.1%.
Pork production in the first quarter was about 15.61 million tons, a year-on-year growth rate of 14.0%. It is this high growth momentum that guarantees the basic demand for pork from mainland residents. After all, the amount of pork consumed by mainland residents every year is close to 50% of the total global pork consumption.
This determines that the main body of pork consumption demand of mainland residents "must rely on our own breeding", and imported pork is more of a supplementary role. Then the new question is, what are the main channels for importing pork from the mainland? Which countries are more affordable in terms of pork prices?
Pork imports from Spain, Argentina, the United States, Brazil and other countries are shared
Taking the first quarter of this year as an example, the core channels for mainland pork imports are: Spain, Brazil, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Among them, Spain continues to be the largest channel for importing pork from the mainland, with a trading volume of 126,806.63 tons (more than 126,800 tons).
The transaction amount was 1.7822 billion yuan, and the average price of pork per kilogram was about 14.05 yuan; Brazil was the second largest channel for importing pork from the mainland, with a trading volume of 81149.12 tons and an amount of 1.0758 billion yuan, and the average price per kilogram of pork was 13.26 yuan.
In the first quarter, the amount of pork imported from the United States exceeded 30,000 tons, the amount of about 329.9 million yuan, and the price per kilogram of pork was only 10.88 yuan; the amount of pork imported from Canada was 26643.44 tons, the amount was 330.1 million yuan, the average price was 12.39 yuan; the amount of pork purchased from the United Kingdom exceeded 20,000 tons, and the average price per kilogram was 12.41 yuan.
Among the top five channels for mainland pork imports, the price of U.S. pork is the most affordable – only 10.88 yuan per kilogram. On the one hand, this is because the price of U.S. pork has an advantage, and on the other hand, it is because of the impact of pork import structure. Some "fat pork" was imported from the United States, which was only 7.19 yuan per kilogram.
In addition, more "other frozen pork" was imported, with an average price of 8.67 yuan, which became "an important reason for lowering the average price of pork imported from the United States"; the third reason was the impact of the exchange rate between the renminbi and the US dollar, which averaged 6.3504 in the first quarter, and the renminbi was relatively strong.
But since the end of April, the renminbi has depreciated to a large extent against the dollar – currently fluctuating between 6.7 and 6.8. It is expected that in the second quarter of this year, the price of pork imported from the United States by the mainland will "get a significant increase after conversion into renminbi", and the cost performance of US pork may not be high.
It is worth mentioning that Germany was once the main channel for importing pork from the mainland. However, from 2020, Germany is deeply affected by African swine fever, and the amount of pig production and exports has shrunk significantly. The mainland turned to Spain, and the pork trade between the two countries developed rapidly and firmly occupied the leading position of pork imports from the mainland.
It is worth mentioning that the data mentioned in this article comes from customs. And they are all "pork", excluding pork offal, separate pork skins and pork products, which belong to the "imported pork in the narrow sense". In recent years, the mainland's pork trade with Russia has also developed steadily, but imports are still relatively insufficient. This article is organized and written by [Nansheng], please do not reprint or plagiarize without authorization!