China meat imports down 12.8% last month

China has once again reduced the demand for meat imports: in October, the country bought only 664,000 tons from abroad. According to official data, this is the lowest volume of meat imports to China in the last 20 months. This figure is 12.8% lower than in October 2020, and also 30,000 tons less than the previous month.

Imports for the first 10 months of 2021 amounted to 8.05 million tons, which is 1.5% less than last year's volumes. Since 2018, China has steadily increased its pork imports to fill a shortfall in the domestic market as the ongoing ASF outbreak has wiped out more than 35% of the national pig population. However, since 2020 China's hog stocks have rebounded and production has increased, causing prices to plummet. As a result, pork imports have declined this year along with domestic prices.

While pork prices rose in October as colder weather boosted consumption, they are still less than half of what they were at the start of the year, or about 21 yuan ($3.28) per kg per kilo, according to Reuters . wholesale markets.