Trade Growing dependence on China

Photo: imago images / McPHOTO
Increasing dependence on China as a trading partner entails risks.
fleischwirtschaft.com — BELGIUM, Brussels. At the beginning of the year the EU was only able to achieve small increases in pork exports. Higher prices, however, resulted in significantly better revenues.
In the first two months of 2020, the European Union's pork exports increased slightly year-on-year. According to the EU Commission, a total of 881,850 t of pork including offal were sold to third countries in January and February by the 27 member states excluding the UK, 2.3% more than in the same period last year. The increase in export revenues was much stronger at 31.7% to € 2.21 bn. because selling prices were significantly higher than in the same period last year.
The moderate growth in EU export volumes was solely due to the booming pork deliveries to China. Compared with the first two months of 2019, these rose by 215,100 t or 82.5% to 475,950 t. This means that business with China accounted for 54% of all EU exports; in the same period of the previous year it was only 30.3% and in the full calendar year 2019 it was still 41.3%. Sales to the People's Republic in the period under review brought in a good € 1 bn. for suppliers, almost half of all revenues.
The moderate growth in EU export volumes was solely due to the booming pork deliveries to China. Compared with the first two months of 2019, these rose by 215,100 t or 82.5% to 475,950 t. This means that business with China accounted for 54% of all EU exports; in the same period of the previous year it was only 30.3% and in the full calendar year 2019 it was still 41.3%. Sales to the People's Republic in the period under review brought in a good € 1 bn. for suppliers, almost half of all revenues.