Ireland's pork exports report further growth this year
AHDB analyst Bethan Wilkins said that although the Irish exports grew in volume, in value they declined by 3% on the year in the mentioned period to €321.7 million, with the average export price falling by 5% over the same period.
Ireland's exports of fresh/chilled pork were stable on the year while shipments of frozen product were up by 4%.
Wilkins said that the overall increase is due to an increase in production, slaughterings increasing by 3% between January and 24 November to 3.1 million head.
The largest share out of Ireland's total pork shipments were destined for the UK. Wilkins explained that the Irish pork meat was less competitive compared to previous year because of a weakned pound.
Furthermore, Ireland had to cut the prices for pork to achieve volume growth due to the fact that for much of this year the EU pig meat has been relatively uncompetitive on the global market.
Shipments of fresh/frozen pork from Ireland to the rest of the EU were up 3% compared to the same period last year, and the total equates to around 58% of all Irish pork exports. This is one percentage point higher than during the same period last year.
Trade to the Czech Republic and France was up by 17% (+690 tonnes) and 71% (+580 tonnes) respectively, while shipments to Italy dropped from a high point last year (-600 tonnes).
Wilkins said that trade with non-EU countries was stable compared with the 2017 situation.
There was a 71% increase in shipments to South Korea, the level reaching 3,300 tonnes of pork.
Shipments to Australia also increased, by 27% (+1,000 tonnes) year-on-year, and there was also modest growth to a number of other non-EU markets such as Japan, Ghana and the Philippines. Overall however, this was offset by lower sales to the primary Asian market; China (-3,800 tonnes).
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