AHDB: UK pork imports were stable in Q2 2018
A recent analysis of the Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) indicated that in the second quarter of this year pork shipments from UK's seven largest suppliers to the country totaled 136,000 tonnes cwe. Shipments from these countries account for 95% of UK's total pork imports. This means that the pork import figure this year resembles the one recorded in the second quarter of 2017.
Bethan Wilkins, AHDB analyst, said that although there was a decline in the shipments from the Netherlands, Spain and Ireland, this was compensated by the growth in pork imports from UK's two largest suppliers, Denmark and Germany.
Meanwhile, shipments of bacon from the UK’s four primary bacon suppliers (around 95% of the market) are estimated at around 48,000 tonnes during Q2, 8% higher than volumes last year. This particularly reflects a recovery in exports from Denmark, which had dropped off in 2017.
AHDB has been using partner country export data to estimate UK fresh/frozen pork import levels since mid-2016, due to concerns over the HMRC figures. However, the UK import figures have been aligning more closely with the trends recorded by our suppliers this year, indicating the reliability of the import data has started to improve. In Q2, the HMRC import figures suggest the UK imported 131,000 tonnes of fresh/frozen pork, 2% less than last year, which is close to the estimate based on supplier exports.
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