Chart of the Day: China’s April Pork Imports Nearly Triple

China has been boosting purchases of pork in recent months, following a deadly swine fever outbreak and Beijing’s commitments to buy more U.S. agriculture products in a trade agreement signed in January.

Pork imports surged 170.4% year-on-year to nearly 1.4 million tons during the January-to-April period, according to data (link in Chinese) released by China’s General Administration of Customs on Saturday. In April, China imported 400,000 tons of pork, up 169.9% year-on-year and marking the highest level in available single month data going back to 2016.

China is the world’s largest pork consumer. In January, China and the U.S. reached a truce in their trade war with a phase one trade agreement, in which China promised to increase its purchases of U.S. goods and services by no less than $200 billion over the next two years from a 2017 baseline, including $32 billion worth of agricultural goods.

To fulfil the commitment, China has since boosted its purchases of agriculture products such as soybeans and pork.

The country is also trying to make up for a domestic shortfall, as its hog herds were decimated by an outbreak of African swine fever that began in the second half of 2018. China is now recovering from the epidemic.

Contact reporter Tang Ziyi (ziyitang@caixin.com) and editor Joshua Dummer (joshuadummer@caixin.com)

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