It is thought this growth is predominantly down to the strong export demand from China to plug its domestic supply gap. Although exports to other Asian countries were smaller in number, they largely recorded double-digit growth.
Despite this, shipments to other EU member states saw an overall decline of 8%. Out of all the large EU markets for French pork, Belgium was the only one to record a growth in imports.
“Imports to France were back 20% versus the same period a year earlier, to 144,000 tonnes,” commented Vikki Campbell, senior analyst at the UK's Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board’s (AHDB) Pork division.
“Spain was still accountable for almost three-quarters of all imports, but volumes were back 19%. German imports were down 43% and now make up less than 10% of the total volume. Although much smaller in absolute volumes, Italian and Portuguese imports both saw increases, of 45% and 96% respectively.”