Pork imports to South Korea fall

South Korea's pork imports fell 6% in the first half of the year as domestic demand fluctuates due to uncertainty. The pandemic is likely to limit demand for catering services, an important market for foreign pork, with pork imports down 6% in the first six months to 224,000 tons. This was the lowest volume of imports from January to June since 2014.

Although the market share is still close to 40%, imports from the US decreased by 17% to 87,100 tons. The main driver of this is high US pork prices driven by strong domestic demand and shrinking supply.

Germany used to be a key supplier to SOUTH KOREA, but supplies were banned last year due to African swine fever. Other EU suppliers have increased volumes and are partly offsetting this decline. Shipments from Spain rose more than 50% to 35,600 tons, volumes from the Netherlands (14,400 tons) and Austria (11,900 tons) more than doubled, and shipments from Denmark more than tripled (14,300 tons). Overall, deliveries from the EU decreased by 2% to 91,000 tons.

Progress against covid-19 will be key to future import demand. South Korea recently recorded a record high number of infections as it struggled to contain a more contagious variant of the virus called Delta. Therefore, it is not clear how demand will develop until the end of the year. However, last month the USDA projected an 8% increase in pork imports from South Korea for 2021 overall, amid an expected 2% decline in domestic production. If implemented, this could provide an opportunity for EU pork exporters and help alleviate some of the pressure from falling demand in CHINA. In June alone, imports were 11% higher than last year and amounted to 38,500 tons.

And this fact will be taken into account when preparing the monthly analytical report Meatinfo.ru