International pork trade : the main flows and their trends

The world is economically and commercially more and more open. The level of pig production, its competitiveness, as also the consumption patterns of each country lead to significant international trade in pork products. This trade compensates for the overall imbalance between national supply and demand (surplus or deficit of production according to consumption). But trade is also due to the different uses of carcass cuts, which vary from country to country. The overall economic balance of the industry depends on such trade, and numerous countries around the world participate to varying degrees in the import or export of pork.Pork trade in the world is increasing every year, with the exception of 2009, due to the financial and economic crisis. Over recent years, many other changes have occurred, such as the market shares of exporting or importing countries, whether EU members or not, or the nature of products traded.The present communication shows the main features of world and European trade in pork products. The analysis is based on customs data, which have been loaded into a very large database, containing all the products of the nomenclature (CN8 for all EU countries and HS6 for almost all other countries). Recent developments are analyzed and the underlying trends identified.