Russia supplies 11,600 tonnes of pork products to China so far this year - watchdog

MOSCOW. March 25 (Interfax) - Russia supplied 11,600 tonnes of pork products to China between January 1 and March 21, said Sergei Dankvert, head of the Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor).

"If we take last year, then for this period - as of March 21 - we have zero, because we had not yet supplied anything, we have only just tapped [this market]. This year, we have supplied 5,400 tonnes of pork, meaning only meat, and 6,200 tonnes of offal," Dankvert said at a press conference in Moscow on Tuesday.

He also said supplies to Hong Kong - 3,400 tonnes of pork and "far less offal" - should be taken into consideration.

Dankvert said Russia's role in pork supplies to China should not be overestimated. "They have a pig population of 500 million to 550 million, we have 27 million. It is premature to say that we will feed China with our pigs - China will feed itself," he said.

But this market's importance for Russian pig farming is that it provides an opportunity to supply on economically beneficial terms products that are considered a delicacy in China (ears, snouts, tails and other offal), but not Russia, he said

China allowed pork supplies from Russia in the autumn of 2023. The first batches were shipped in March last year and reached China in April. Three Russian companies have the right to export pork products to China and Russia is seeking to expand this list.

Dankvert said that overall, pork exports had almost doubled this year. As of March 21, exports totaled 60,500 tonnes, up from 32,000 tonnes a year earlier.

"The pace we have achieved gained points to one thing: despite the problems that we have and Europe has, despite African swine fever, we are working in a way that enables us to export products," he said.