Spain

A look inside Spain's foreign meat trade

In less than a quarter of a century, the meat industry in Spain managed to become the first export sector of the country's food industry and is now a major player in the global meat trade, especially when it comes down to pork exports. Spain is the fourth largest pork producer in the world and the third largest exporter, behind Germany and the USA, according to the data provided by the National Meat Processing Industries Association of Spain (ANICE).

Posted on Apr 16 ,06:16

Last year, the Spanish meat sector exported a total of 2.33 million tons of meat and processed products of all kinds worth €6,084 million to markets around the world, with an increasingly positive trade balance, in this 477%, and a growth of 2.5% in volume and 9.4% in value compared to 2016. Analysts at ANICE say the rise in Spain's meat trade indicates an increase in the export export of products with higher added value and at a better price.

Meat exports account for nearly 44% of Spain's total meat production, while when referring to processed meat products, these represent almost 10%. According to ANICE, this percentage has continuosly increased in recent years.

Spain exported 1,554,981 tons of pork worth €3.6 billion in 2017, abroad sales increasing by 4.4% in volume and by 12.5% in value compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, exports of processed products rose by 8.3% in the same period to 197,818 and in terms of value they increased by 10.1% to €1,267 million.

Spanish beef exports reached a new record of 171,953 tons last year, with an increase of 1.4% compared to 2016, while in terms of value, they rose by 5.3% in the same period, totalling €610 million euros.

Last year represented a period of consolidation, for the export of offals, after the spectacular growth of 2016. Exports reached during this period 369,451 tons valued at €413 million.

The main destination for the Spanish meat and meat product shipments was the EU. Nearly 75% of the total exports went to the European bloc, mainly to France, Germany, Portugal, and Italy.

ANICE underlines the spectacular increase in Spanish meat exports to third countries in recent years. The main destinations outside of the EU for the Spanish shipments were China, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong.

"In this regard, it should be noted that 37.3% of total exports of pig meat, offal and fat were sold in third countries. China is already the main customer of the Spanish pig, along with France, and ahead of Italy, Portugal and Japan," ANICE's report read.