China Meat Trade Monthly Report Summary

July 20221

1 Meat Trade

1.1 Key Points

(1) In the first half of 2022, the meat import volume of each month was lower than that of the same period of last year. Meat imports decreased by 1.62 million tons or 32% to 3.46 million tons in H1. The import value was close to US$14 billion, a decrease of US$2.6 billion or 16%. The import volume of pork, beef, mutton and poultry all decreased year on year.

(2) Compared with meat imports before ASF, meat imports surged by more than 1 million tons. Specifically, pork imports increased by nearly 150 thousand tons or 20%, mutton imports rose by about 40 thousand tons or 30%, beef imports surged by 800 thousand tons or 2.5 times, poultry imports surged by about 500 thousand tons or 2.3 times, and swine offal imports saw little change.

(3) The import prices of beef, poultry and swine offal were strong in H1 2022. In June, the import prices of beef and poultry hit record high, and the price of swine offal hit the second highest in history; In June, pork import price stopped falling and rebounded, returning to higher than US$2000/ton.

(4) In H1 2022, meat imports from most countries decreased, while imports from Uruguay, Australia, Russia, Belarus and Turkey increased. Specifically, imports from Uruguay reached 223 thousand tons, up by nearly 20%; imports from Australia reached 163 thousand tons, an increase of 0.8%; imports from Russia, Belarus and Turkey surged.

(5) In the first half of 2022, the top five import source countries were Brazil, USA, Spain, Argentina and NZ. Imports from the top five all decreased. Among them, the decline in imports from Brazil was relatively small, and imports from Brazil accounted for 25.4%, 6 percentage points higher than in H1 2021; Meat imports from USA and Spain fell by more than 30% and 60% respectively, mainly due to the sharp decline in pork imports.

                            Chart 1 China’s Meat Imports and Exports in June and H1 2022

2 Meat Imports

2.1 General Situation

2.1.1 Import Size: H1 meat imports stood at 3.46 million tons, decreasing by 32% year on year

Meat imports reached 603 thousand tons in June, 1.5% higher than in June. It’s first time this year that the monthly imports exceeded 600 thousand tons. The import value was US$2.64 billion, 3.8% higher than in June.

Meat imports remained broadly stable from March to June. Specifically, pork imports and mutton imports showed a downward trend, swine offal imports and poultry imports were stable, and beef imports showed an upward trend. The increase of beef imports made up for the decrease of pork imports and mutton imports.

Meat imports in each month in H1 2021 were more than 700 thousand tons, while meat imports from January to May 2022 were less than 600 thousand tons. The imports were 3.46 million tons in H1 2022, down by 1.62 million tons or 32% year on year. Specifically, pork imports decreased by 65% to 805 thousand tons, swine offal imports decreased by 15% to 513 thousand tons, mutton imports decreased by 22% to 189 thousand tons, poultry imports decreased by 1.3% to 674 thousand tons, while beef imports increased by 1.7% to 1152 thousand tons, hitting a record high.

Compared with meat imports before ASF, meat imports surged by more than 1 million tons. Specifically, pork imports increased by nearly 150 thousand tons or 20%, mutton imports rose by about 40 thousand tons or 30%, beef imports surged by 800 thousand tons or 2.5 times, poultry imports surged by about 500 thousand tons or 2.3 times, and swine offal imports saw little change.

Chart 3 Meat Imports in June 2022

3 Meat Exports

3.1 Export Size: China exported 188 thousand tons of meat in H1 2022, up 22% year on year

In June 2022, China exported 31,976 tons of meat, a decrease of 3,731 tons or 10% month on month, up by 4,046 tons or 14.5% year on year.

In H1, China exported 188 thousand tons of meat, an increase of 33 thousand tons or 21.7% year on year.