Italian pork meat will soon receive green light for Chinese marketplace. On September 27, Italian embassy in China formalized to Italy’s Minister for Health Politics “General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine” (Aqsiq) formal decision to admit pork meat coming from Northern Italy’s regions (Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Lombardy, Piedmont, Marche, Aosta Valley, Trentino Alto Adige and Veneto). The decisive switch was represented by China full approval of Italian pork meat allowance for vesicular disease. All operating procedures with Chinese authorities can now be activated to ensure the opening of the market to Italian fresh pork meat and short aging products. That’s the final result of 13 years of negotiations. In 2013, Assica proposed for the first time to give green light to Northern regions – which have already obtained a positive risk assessment from USA authorities. A winning idea, and the achievement of a vitally important objective for the future of this business sector.
SUPPORT ITALIAN PRODUCT IN STRATEGIC MARKETS – “This fundamental achievement has been made possible thanks to Assica decisive action, with the involvement of Italian authorities at all institutional levels Assica President Nicola Levoni says. Everyone has worked hard and in a mutually supportive manner to achieve this goal. That’s a very important result for the protection of Italian pork meat” – says Italy Minister for Agricultural Politics Maurizio Martina. “Now it’s very important to start all the operating procedures and export Italian products. It’s a key part of our strategic plan to support Italian products in crucial marketplaces such as China, where Italy’s export has exceeded €350 million”.
THE ECONOMIC SCENARIO – China green light for Italian pork meat, grease and giblets export is a great opportunity which could lead to €50 million turnover already at an early stage. In this way Italy could catch up with its main European competitors. In the first seven months of 2016, EU pork meat (live pigs, fresh meat, frozen meat, giblets, etc.) export has reached a record of 2,4 million tons to the value of about €4,4 billion (volume and value increase of 36,7% on 2015). Demand from China has been decisive: 1.157.000 tons compared to 561.000 tons in the first seven months of 2015, with a 106,3% volume increase and €1,7 billion value increase (+123%). China is to this day the main export market for EU pork meat, with a share of around 48% of the total.