A decline in Hong Kong’s fresh pork supply due to African swine fever (ASF) is creating both short-term and long-term opportunities for U.S. pork.
At a USMEF press conference announcing plans to fill Hong Kong’s growing fresh pork supply gap with U.S. chilled pork, Joel Haggard, USMEF senior vice president for the Asia Pacific, said the opportunity could benefit the U.S. pork industry in both the near and distant future, as more consumers adapt to chilled pork rather than fresh “warm” pork derived from hogs imported from China.
The press conference, which featured an address by Hanscom Smith, U.S. Consul General to Hong Kong and Macau, received funding support from the National Pork Board.
“Despite neighboring Asian countries like Taiwan and Singapore slowly moving toward a consistent chilled pork supply chain, Hong Kong’s consumers have remained steadfast in their preference for fresh, warm pork and they have been willing to pay a premium for it,” said Haggard, referring to pork sold by Hong Kong’s vast network of wet market vendors. “The current supply situation opens opportunities for increased sales of U.S. chilled pork in the short term and to convince more consumers to accept chilled pork as a permanent alternative.”
USMEF President and CEO Dan Halstrom explained the benefit of moving more vacuum-packaged U.S. chilled pork into the Hong Kong market, pointing to the success chilled products have achieved in other Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea.
“What chilled product can do that frozen product typically cannot is encourage a 52-week per year program business opportunity,” said Halstrom. “Frozen pork can be stored, and importers can hold onto it. High-quality chilled product is meant to be moved consistently, week in and week out. The goal is to establish a supply chain and continue to grow the chilled pork segment.”
The press conference highlighted establishment of a new U.S. chilled pork supply chain that will make U.S. chilled pork readily available at less cost to consumers than the current prices for fresh pork. Haggard said some U.S. items could be also priced lower than chilled products from competing suppliers like Thailand, Australia and China.
There are challenges to establishing the supply chain – for example, it takes a few more days to ship to Hong Kong than to Japan and Korea – but the U.S. industry is aggressively stepping up to address these issues.
“Wet market vendors in Hong Kong still need to be taught how to handle vacuum-packaged chilled product,” said Haggard. “We are just getting started, and getting product that last mile to the many small outlets in Hong Kong’s meat sales environment is a challenge.”
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