World pork production growing in 2023 The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its latest Jan. 23 edition increased the estimate of world pork production to +3.8% yoy. China has a significant share in this with an expected increase of +7.8% to around 55 million t. This corresponds to around 48% of world production. Nevertheless, the Chinese production increase is not sufficient to cover the consumption of almost 57 million tons. The USDA therefore assumes China's import volume of more than 2 million t compared to the peak year 2020 with around 5.5 million t. In the 2nd largest production area, EU-27 , a drop in production of -0.4% to 22.58 million t is predicted. EU exports are expected to fall back to 3.9 million tonnes in 2023. In 2020 it was still around 5.2 million t, most of which were delivered to China. For the USA , as the 3rd largest pork producer, the USDA estimates an increase of 1.2% to around 12.5 million tons. As US domestic consumption is lower, unchanged from last year d. 2.9 million t export expected.Brazil remains on course for growth with +1.9% and should reach 4.43 million t. At 1.4 million t, exports are estimated to be higher than in the previous year. With around 1.4 million tons, Canada regularly exports two thirds of its pork production to many countries around the world. However, Canadian production has been stagnating at around 2 million t for more than 5 years. Vietnam, South Korea and the Philippines are very slow to rebuild their pig populations after ASF outbreaks. Therefore, their imports remain at high levels. Japan with just under 1.5 million t and Mexico with 1.24 million t imports should also be emphasized as importing countries. In both cases, no increases are foreseen for 2023. Overall, world pork trade is no longer at the high level it was at the peak of ASF in China.
