MOSCOW. April 15 (Interfax) – The first shipment of Russian pork has been delivered to the Chinese market according to Miratorg, the first company to begin deliveries after China lifted restrictions on Russian pork imports last September.

A consignment of products weighing 27 tonnes was produced at the holding’s meat processing complex in the Belgorod region and sent from Selyatino station on March 7 by rail to Vladivostok. From there, it was loaded onto a ship to the port of Nansha in China. Russian transport company Fesco organized the intermodal shipment process.

The container arrived at the Chinese port after one month in transit, from where the importer unloaded the shipment into his warehouse on April 13.

“We greatly value the Chinese market and take a responsible attitude towards fulfilling all the veterinary requirements of the importing country. The goal is to increase supply volumes in the coming years and expand the range of meat products in accordance with the taste preferences of Chinese residents.

The company independently ensures 100% quality control and complete traceability of products at all stages from “field to table,” Miratorg’s press service said.

 

Interfax

 

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The EU-spec SPP has dropped back again, but the most eye-catching part of the latest of AHDB’s market data is the drop of in estimated slaughter numbers. 

If these turn out to be accurate – and they are often revision – weekly GB slaughterings, at 141,000 for the week ended March 16, appear to be at the lowest level outside of Christmas and New Year since April 2010.

Estimated GB slaughterings for the week were nearly 6,000 down on the previous week, 20,000 below the same week a year ago and 34,000 below the 2022 figure.

The drop off appears to be a combination of the vastly reduced breeding herd, combined with, according to last week’s PIG meeting, productivity issues, partly the result of the relentless wet weather.

The SPP lost 0.18p to stand at 211.31p/kg during the week ended March 16, following the previous week’s 00.16p increase. It has been extremely stable since the end of January, when it stood at 211.38p/kg, fluctuating up and down by tiny amounts since, and is now roughly back to where it was.

It is now, however, for the first time in a very long time, now more than 1p behind the SPP of a year ago, which stood at 212.53p/kg, at a time when pig prices were still rising at a decent rate.

The much more volatile APP, which includes premium pigs, gained 1.2p during the week ended March 9 to stand at 211.63p/kg, cancelling out the declines of the previous fortnight. This put it back ahead of the SPP for the week by just 0.14p/kg.

Despite the latest reverse, many within the industry remain optimistic that the combination of tightening supplies and rising EU markets will support the market over the coming weeks.

 

Alistair Driver | National Pig Association

 

Eddie Bisknell | BBC News

Russia has announced that it has sent pork to China for the first time since 2008 when the Chinese Government imposed a ban on Russian due to African Swine Fever.

Russia sent 27 tonnes of pork to China on Thursday, according to Russia’s veterinary and phytosanitary service, Rosselkhoznadzor, Reuters reports.

“On March 7, the Rosselkhoznadzor monitored the shipment of the first batch of Russian-made pork to China with a volume of 27 tonnes,” Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement.

The shipment came after China lifted ASF restrictions, which had been in force against Russia since 2008, in September 2023. Rosselkhoznadzor said it had been trying to open up the Chinese market to Russian pork for some years

China is still by a long distance, the world’s biggest pork importer, despite its import volumes dropping in recent years as its herd recovers from its own ASF outbreak.

The biggest exporters of pork and offal to China are currently Brazil, Spain, Canada, the United States, Denmark and the Netherlands, but Russia is hoping to muscle in and secure 5% of that lucrative market, according to the Russian National Union of Pig Breeders.

 

Alistair Driver | Pig World

Issues with the supply of lamb from New Zealand to the United Kingdom (UK) is having a knock-on effect with the sheep trade in Ireland.

Shipping through the Suez canal has recently become impossible for some ships, which have instead re-routed around the Cape of Good Hope in the south of Africa.

However, this has made the import of New Zealand lamb to the UK expensive, with Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) president Sean McNamara telling Agriland that it is “cheaper to buy the lamb here [in Ireland]”, as opposed to shipping it from the southern hemisphere, which has driven Irish prices up.

McNamara said that the top prices for hoggets this week in the sheep trade are ranging from €7.80-8.10/kg, adding that the trade is “very good” at the moment.

A factory procurement manager told Agriland that currently, “demand is good and the supply is half-decent”.

They added that many of the sheep coming into the factories lately are store lambs that were bought, and that these farmers who bought the stores are now bringing in a “scatter of heavy and a scatter or light” weight hoggets.

They said this particular trend, “seems to be the way this time of year”.

 

Colm Ryan | Agriland

The British Meat Processors Association has written to the Home Secretary James Cleverly to outline the damage to the UK meat and wider food industry that the new £38,700 immigration rule will cause.

A salary of £38,700 for butchers from overseas represents a 49% increase in current salary levels which sit around £26,200 for a worker in the UK. BMPA chief executive Nick Allan said this would spark a raft of Equal Pay Claims under the Equality Act 2010, as existing British workers have a legal right to demand to be paid an equal salary for the same work as their newly arrived overseas colleagues.

Firms are already working to margins around of 2%, Allan said, and therefore couldn’t absorb the additional costs. Instead, it will stoke food price inflation and be passed on to the British consumer.

In his letter Nick Allen explains: “Unfortunately, there is a perception that UK businesses utilise migrant labour as a “cheaper option” to UK-based labour. This is simply not the case. The skilled worker route offers our industry access to labour that we are unable to source within the UK and is already at a significantly higher cost than recruiting a UK-based worker.”

 

Chloe Ryan | Poultry News

 

 

A flying finished lamb trade and a positive outlook for the spring will offer some confidence to sheep farmers during the next few months.

Strong retail demand, tight supply, increased export trade and firm buyer interest in the build-up to Ramadan should all help to offer short-term support.

The deadweight lamb SQQ averaged £7/kg for the week ending 24 February, up 37% (189p/kg) on the same week last year.

Tight supplies of lamb have left processors looking for stock, with GB estimated slaughter figures back by about 8% compared with this time last year, to less than 200,000 head a week. This is due to a smaller lamb crop in 2023, and adverse weather slowing finishing on farm and restricting the number of hoggs coming forward.

Meanwhile, this year’s early lambers are being affected by a rise in cases of Schmallenberg disease, which could limit throughputs moving forward.

In Scotland, R3L-grade lambs averaged 696p/kg deadweight in mid-February, while old-season lambs at Scottish auction marts have been averaging about 315p/kg liveweight.

 

Charlie Reeve | Farmers Weekly

British pork exporters have taken the first steps towards maximising new opportunities in California following the introduction of the controversial Proposition 12 legislation in the state.

California’s Prop 12 legislation came into force on January 1, establishing stricter production standards including the provision of greater freedom of movement for pigs. Prop 12 bans the sale of pork from the offspring of sows kept in pens that do not provide 24 square feet per sow. The legislation prevents the sale in the State of pig meat that does not meet the new criteria.

Only a small fraction of US pig producers are compliant – just 4%, according to one report, with the new regulations, therefore, opening up opportunities for other countries to supply a state with a population of around 40 million.

 

Alistair Driver | Pig World

The NPA has set out the case for how small and medium-sized abattoirs should be supported under Defra’s new funding scheme. 

Farming Minister Mark Spencer announced in February that Defra would be developing a Smaller Abattoir Fund. Small abattoirs have been in decline for many years, and, in the past few days, news has emerged of a local Cumbrian plant that has been forced to close. The loss of these local abattoirs is making it increasingly hard for farmers to find outlets for their stock.

Mr Spencer said: “If farming is to flourish then we need to get the fundamentals right – abattoirs are key to the food supply chain and there is clearly a need to support smaller providers in this area.”

Defra has been seeking the views of industry bodies on how the fund should look and, in its response, put together with guidance from the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers (AIMS), the NPA stresses that small- to medium-sized abattoirs are vital to the pig industry in providing alternative markets to the larger processors.

They also provide additional capacity in the event of breakdowns and general delays in slaughter capacity at times of acute pressure, as experienced during the pig backlog.

“Therefore, support for this specific sector of the industry is essential to protect animal health and welfare, and never more so as the slaughtering and processing sector continues to consolidate resulting in pigs being transported ever greater distances for slaughter,” the response states.

 

by Alistair Driver | Pig World

China is expected to increase its pork imports in the coming months, as its pig herd is hit by the knock-on effect of industry losses suffered last year.

The reduction in pig output in China appears to be larger than official data suggests, industry experts claim. Surging pork prices have driven up inflation in the world’s second-largest economy, which produces about half of the world’s pork, at a time of slowing growth, according to a report by Reuters.

Chinese pork prices rose in October by more than 50% from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said. Pork prices are predicted stay high in 2023 because of the lower supply, according to 10 industry analysts, farmers, and feed and genetics suppliers, although they cautioned demand may be impacted by China’s COVID measures.

Falling pork demand and high feed costs from June 2021 until July this year caused farmers to incur losses of as much as 600 yuan per hog, according to the report. Farmers sold off herds, culled more sows than normal or slowed production by not mating females to curb their losses.

The government has blamed farmers holding pigs back from slaughter to fatten them up more for the higher prices, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has repeatedly said breeding capacity is sufficient.

 

Alistair Driver  / Pig World