South Korea

Pork imports in South Korea are falling

Pork

A 6% drop in pork imports has been recorded in the first half of the year.

Posted on Aug 16 ,11:06

South Korea's pork imports have fallen by 6% in the first half of the year, as demand in the domestic market is rattled by uncertainty. Pandemic is likely to be limiting foodservice demand, an important market for foreign pork and, for the first six months, there was a drop of 6% in pork imports, which totaled 224,000 tonnes. This was the lowest Jan-Jun import volume since 2014.
While still holding a market share of nearly 40%, imports from the US fell back by 17% to 87,100 tonnes. High prices for US pork, driven by strong domestic demand and tighter supplies, are a major contributing factor to this.
Germany had previously been a key supplier to South Korea, but was banned last year due to the presence of African Swine Fever within its borders. Other EU suppliers have increased volumes and compensate for this to some extent. Shipments from Spain were up by over 50% to 35,600 tonnes, volumes from the Netherlands (14,400 tonnes) and Austria (11,900 tonnes) more than doubled while supplies from Denmark more than trebled (14,300 tonnes). Altogether, shipments from the EU were down by 2% at 91,000 tonnes.
Progress in combatting Covid-19 will be key for import demand going forward. South Korea has recently seen record high cases as it has had difficulty containing the more transmissible Delta variant. It is therefore uncertain how demand will play out for the rest of the year. Nonetheless, last month the USDA forecast an 8% rise in South Korean pork imports for 2021 overall, on the back of an expected 2% decline in domestic production. If realised, this could provide a welcome opportunity for EU pork exporters, and help mitigate some of the difficulties associated with declining Chinese demand. In June alone, imports were 11% higher than last year, at 38,500 tonnes.

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