Magazine: China is impressed with the quality of Hungarian pork

China is the world’s 14th fastest developing economy, where the GDP growth was 7.8 percent in 2013 and 7.4 percent in 2014. This economic superpower boasts a better foreign trade performance than Germany and its GDP can reach that of the USA in 10 years’ time. Last year’s Chinese export was worth USD 2,343 billion, with the main trading partners being the USA, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea. Per capita GDP was USD 12,000 in 2013 and USD 12,900 in 2014. There are 1.4 billion people living in China and from this 801.6 million are active in the labour market. The unemployment rate is 4 percent, 33.6 percent of the active population work in agriculture, 30.3 percent are in the industry and 36.1 percent work in the services sector. Agriculture produces only 9.2 percent of the GDP. State debt was only 15.1 percent of the GDP and the inflation rate was 2 percent in 2014. The size of agricultural land is 143 million hectares – 14.9 percent of China’s 9.6 million square metre territory. This area is 25 times bigger than the land used for agricultural production in Hungary, but let’s not forget that the population to be supplied with food is 134 times bigger. It is a great performance by the Chinese agriculture that there is no food shortage in the country any more. China irrigates 36 percent of its agricultural land, while in Hungary this proportion is between 1.3 and 1.7 percent. China is the largest producer of freshwater fish in the world. If we examine the last two years, we can see that Hungarian export to China grew by 7 percent and our import from the Asian giant dropped 4 percent. However, from Hungary’s total agricultural export China’s share was a mere 0.1 percent. Still, the fact that our agri-food export almost tripled in 2014 shows very well that there are great opportunities for us in the Chinese market. In the first half of 2015 we managed to repeat the same performance and we must keep in mind that China is the country where 22 percent of the Earth’s population lives, and a growing number of Chinese consumers have more money to spend than before and these people are looking for quality groceries in shops. This is the reason why high-quality Hungarian pork has become successful in the Chinese market. Hungarian pork first appeared in the Chinese market in 2014 after long negotiations with the country’s veterinary authorities. In the second half of 2014 Hungary’s pork export to China was 12,500 tons and because the Chinese were impressed with its quality, they decided to order more pork from Hungary. In addition to pork, in the first half of 2015 we also managed to sell more honey and wine in China. New products in our Chinese export include jam, fruit juice and yeast. Hungarian agri-food products have a good reputation in China. In the last few years Hungary made efforts to revitalise bilateral economic relations with China and as part of this in May 2012 a memorandum was signed on establishing the Hungarian-Chinese Scientific and Technological Cooperation and Promotion Centre. The centre’s objective is to harmonise the two countries’ R&D programmes and resources. Good diplomatic relations with China also seem to bear fruit in the form of trade expansion and news about the possibility of major Chinese investment projects in Hungary. n