With more rapid recovery from African swine fever than expected, China has drastically reduced importation of pork. According to the USDA-FAS, pork exports for the first quarter of 2022 amounted to 39,000 metric tons representing a 75 percent decline from the corresponding quarter in 2021. U.S. pork exports were also impacted by reductions of 15 percent for Japan, 17 percent for Canada and 7 percent for South Korea, contributing to an overall 21 percent decline to 522,000 metric tons. Mexico did, however, increase imports by 40 percent during the first quarter.
The U.S. is in a noncompetitive situation in China compared to the E.U. since a tariff of 25 percent is applied to U.S. imports.