Australia covets Taiwan pork gap

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Published: July 17, 1997

CANBERRA, Australia – Pork producers see the hoof-and-mouth disease outbreak in Taiwan as an opportunity to boost production and offset the effects of Canadian exports to Australia.

The Australian sector has traditionally been oriented to the domestic market, but now sees the opportunity to export up to 30,000 tonnes a year. Last year exports were just 7,000 tonnes of pork included 4,000 tonnes of wild pig to Europe.

Canada Pork International, the marketing arm of the Canadian pork industry, has said in the past it doesn’t consider Australia’s hog industry to be sophisticated enough to be a significant competitor. Australia has been importing about 1,000 tonnes a month of Canadian pork.

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But Australian Pork Corp. managing director Ray North told the annual conference of the New South Wales Farmers Association pork section that Japanese companies had told the corporation they would like to source pork from here.

Japanese requirements of 70 to 80 kilogram carcasses are in line with requirements for the Australian domestic market, he said.

Exports of 30,000 tonnes a year would represent about eight percent of Australian production and be worth $147 million (Cdn).

Australia now is shipping about 5,000 pig carcases a week to Japan. Japan imports up to 600,000 tonnes of pork a year and until the hoof-and-mouth outbreak, Taiwan accounted for half of the trade.

But the Australian exports won’t be starting immediately. North said a buildup of pig numbers would take time because of the nine months needed from mating for pigs to reach the required weights.

“We have the slaughtering capacity but there is a shortage of boning room capacity,” he said.

All Australian pork exports now have to be processed at abattoirs that meet U.S. Department of Agriculture standards, but this problem may soon be solved.

Hong Kong authorities said they will accept meat if the exporter obtains a letter of agreement from Hong Kong stating abattoir standards are acceptable – meaning domestic abattoirs could process export pork.

North said producers should make sure they get a fair price by insisting on provisions in their contracts to cover seasonal price rises.

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Alan Harman

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