Market profile: Brazil counts for 24% of China's meat imports
A recent market report issued by IndexBox shows the big picture of the Chinese meat market. The findings reveal an increased dependency on meat imports and trends in consumption. Here is a summary of the report’s key findings.
China’s meat imports soared from $14.7B in 2019 to $23.8B in 2020. In physical terms, the purchases skyrocketed from 4.1M tonnes to 6.8M tonnes. China’s meat imports continue to grow, increasing by +3% over the first seven months of 2021 against the same period of the previous year. Brazil, Spain and the U.S. became the leading meat suppliers to China and recorded the highest export growth rate among other countries. Pork, beef and sheepmeat are the main types of meat supplied into China. Last year, China’s purchases of pork spiked twofold. Imports of beef increased by +26% y-o-y, while lamb and sheep meat supplies fell by -7% y-o-y.
China’s Meat Imports by Country
Meat imports into China soared to 6.8M tonnes in 2020, picking up by 67% from the previous year. In value terms, meat imports skyrocketed to $23.8B (IndexBox estimates) in 2020, increasing by +67.0% y-o-y.
In the first seven months of 2021, China’s meat imports continued to follow an upward trend, picking up +3% in physical terms from the same period in 2020.
Brazil (1.3M tonnes), Spain (934K tonnes), and the U.S. (724K tonnes) were the leading suppliers of meat imports to China, with a combined 44% share of total imports.
Over the past year, meat imports from the U.S. rose from 0.3M tonnes to 0.7M tonnes. Purchases from Brazil boosted from 0.6M tonnes to 1.3M tonnes, while imports from Spain grew from 0.4M tonnes to 0.9M tonnes.
In value terms, Brazil ($5.7B) constituted the largest supplier of meat to China, comprising 24% of total imports. The second position in the ranking was occupied by Spain ($2.7B), with an 11% share of total imports. It was followed by Australia, with a 9.1% share.
The average meat import price stood at $3,503 per tonne in 2020, decreasing by -2.6% against the previous year. Prices varied noticeably by the country of origin; the country with the highest price was Australia ($5,371 per tonne), while the price for imports from Canada ($2,494 per tonne) was amongst the lowest. In 2020, the most notable rate of growth in terms of prices was attained by Germany, while the prices for the other significant suppliers experienced more modest paces of growth.
China’s Meat Imports by Type
In 2020, pork (4.3M tonnes) constituted the most significant type of meat supplied to China, accounting for 63% of total imports. Moreover, pork imports exceeded the figures recorded for the second-largest type, beef (2.1M tonnes), twofold. The third position in this ranking was occupied by lamb and sheep meat (365K tonnes), with a 5.4% share.
In 2020, the volume of pork imports grew twofold, while beef purchases rose by +27.6% y-o-y. Imports of lamb and sheepmeat dropped by -7.0% y-o-y.
In value terms, pork ($11.9B), beef ($10.2B) and lamb and sheep meat ($1.7B) appeared to be the most imported types of meat in China, together accounting for nearly 100% of total imports.
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