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In 2023, China imported a total of 1,550,000 tons of pork and 1,170,000 tons of offal, 12% less pork than the previous year but 5% more offal.
These values are far from the record imports seen in 2020 and 2021, which stood at 4,380,000 t and 3,710,000 t of pork, respectively.
These data coincide with the first reported case of African swine fever in China in August 2018, which resulted in a significant decrease in the pig herd from over 428 million head in 2018 to 310 million head in 2019, a decrease of around 40%. Consequently, pork production declined sharply from 54 million t in 2018, to 44.55 in 2019 and 41.13 in 2020 and this led to record increases in pork and offal imports. From 2020 onwards, as the pig inventory and pork production have recovered, the need for imports has decreased, as can be seen in the following graph.
Evolution of Chinese pork and offal imports and production. Source: 333 based on data from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Customs Service.
For more information on pig inventories, pork trade, and production data, visit our section on pig production data.
January 23, 2024/ 333 Staff with data from the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics and Ministry of Agriculture.
