According to reports from China’s Ministry of Commerce, six exporters have been given the green light to produce pork meat for the market: Sonora Agropecuaria, Frigorifico Agropecuaria Sonorense (slaughter facility), Frigorifico Agropecuaria Sonorense (packhouse), Frigorifico Kowi, Alimentos Grole and Grupo Porcicola Mexicano. The remaining two – Grupo Gusi and Sukarne Agroindustrial – are dedicated to the generation of beef products.
Marco A Sanchez, commercial director of Grupo Norson, the owner of Frigorifico Agropecuaria Sonorense, said he expected to begin exporting before the beginning of the summer. "This is great news and comes with big expectations. China is one of the largest consumers of pork meat in the world, so we expect to sell primary and secondary pork products," he told GlobalMeatNews.
The negotiations to reach this deal started nearly seven years ago, in 2009. However, the efforts were fruitful from 2012, when four Mexican facilities obtained registration from the Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People’s Republic of China to export pork products with the exception of offal, according to the Mexican Ministry of Economy, which has urged the Chinese government to speed up registration approvals in general.
Pork and beef meat are two of the 30 food products which China allows to be imported from Mexico on a regular basis.
The move has also been welcomed by Gao Guan, the China Meat Association (CMA)’s deputy secretary general, who told GlobalMeatNews: "Thanks to [Chinese President] Chairman Xi [Jinping]’s visit to Mexico in 2013, the relationship between the countries has improved, so Mexican companies have been approved to export pork to China."
In 2014, China imported a total of 560,000 tonnes (t) of pork meat, with 807,000t of pork by-products, said Guan. China mainly imports pork from the US (20.76%), Germany (18.92%), Spain (16.22%), and Denmark (11.97%), according to the CMA’s data.
Meanwhile, in the first 10 months of 2014, Mexico exported 74,000t of fresh meat, mostly to Japan (84.1%), but also to the US (8.1%), and Canada (0.2%).
Lin Rongquan, a former researcher for the Shanghai Meat Industry Association and a consultant for the Shanghai meat industry, forecast that, in 2015, China’s total pork meat imports will not exceed 600,000t. This is because, he said, some domestic companies have called on the government to restrict pork imports, and Beijing has responded. "The government tends to import more beef and lamb, not pork," he told GlobalMeatNews.