China's pork market in transition - self-generation is making slow progress - demand continues to rise. The restructuring of the Chinese pork market continues. The latest reports from "Asian Agribusiness" cite information from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, according to which the number of mostly small slaughterhouses has risen from 14,720 in 2013 to 11,219 in 2016 by approx. 24% has fallen . This decline is set to continue to improve hygiene, environmental impact and, last but not least, efficiency. Meanwhile, the share of slaughter companies with more than 20.000 slaughtered animals increased to 26% . The goal of the Chinese government is to upgrade the whole pork sector. In the sparsely populated Chinese Inner Mongolia region of northern China, it has just begun to set up a production slaughter and processing company for 1 million pigs of annual capacity. In addition to pig farming, this includes a large feed mill with a capacity of 400,000 t. In the province of Yunnan in southwestern China , a similar project with a capacity of 500,000 pigs is to be built.However, in the period from Jan to Sept. 2017 , Chinese pigmeat production only increased by 0.7% . If the previously produced 37.2 million tons of pork are raised to the level of the previous year, the figures will remain at the level of consumption development .Preliminary figures for Chinese imports of fresh / frozen pork from January to September 2017 be 920,508 tons worth $ 1.7 billion. This is a year-on-year decrease of 28.0% in volume and 34.1% in value.Despite all efforts, China will remain the world's largest importer of pork for the time being, even before Japan, even though the booming development of 2016 will not be repeated and will continue to develop at a medium level. For the whole year 2017 the USDA expects a Chinese pork import in the order of 1.6 million t . This compares to over 2 million tonnes in the previous year. Reductions in imports also correspond in terms of their level to EU exports to China.However, there is one exception to Hong Kong , as this import region imports pork in relatively stable proportions.
