Aragon remains vigilant about Chinese tariffs on pork and opts for diversification

Aragon is still awaiting the tariffs that China has threatened to impose on pork exports from Europe and measures are already being taken to mitigate the possible effects . As announced by the Director General of Economy of the Government of Aragon, Javier Martínez, the Ministry of Agriculture is working with producers and clusters to create a common roadmap that reinforces the commitment to market diversification.

“At the moment we are simply waiting and the sector has been very agile and what it is doing is diversifying markets in the face of this inconvenience that the export of pork to China may present,” Martínez stressed. A measure that is still up in the air and that the Chinese government announced in response to the tariffs that the European Union imposed on electric cars, putting Spain and Aragon in the centre of the target.

In figures, Aragonese pork exports to the Asian country accounted for 1.8% of the total in 2023 and, analysing the destinations of the meat sector, it is positioned as the first with more than 14% followed by Italy (13.9%) and Japan (6.9%). However, the volume has been decreasing in recent years. In 2020, at the height of the swine fever, Aragon’s meat exports to China reached 777 million, while in 2023 they fell to 321 million.

A fall caused by the search for new markets, which the sector has been betting on since China allowed the production of its own pigs, a liberalisation that took place before the announcement of the tariffs. “The exposure is much lower, a great sign of health that allows us to face these possible sanctions that have not yet been transferred. At the moment we do not have enough information to know how it could affect”, remarked Daniel Álvarez, president of the CEOE Internationalisation Commission.

The Commission met on Tuesday and analysed the Aragonese foreign sector, focusing on the 17% drop in July, mainly focused on the automotive sector. In this regard, businessmen and the DGA have been positive due to the strength of the other sectors such as the agri-food sector or capital goods and have pointed out that these drops could be repeated occasionally due to changes in the automobile sector with the emergence of electric vehicles.