Singapore will soon begin importing chilled pork from China, marking the first time the city-state will receive such supplies, according to officials and a Hunan-based exporter.
This development expands bilateral food trade, more than a year after Singapore resumed frozen pork imports from China. Frozen imports had been suspended since 2018, when African swine fever prompted bans across several countries.
Peng Huifeng, deputy general manager of Hunan Huale Foodstuff, said the first chilled pork shipments are expected to arrive in Singapore in a little over a month. Huale is based in Hanshou County, Changde City, in central China’s Hunan Province.
The move follows cooperation agreements reached on December 15 at the annual China-Singapore Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation meeting held in Chongqing. Under the agreement, Chongqing, Heilongjiang, and Hunan will export pork and selected processed pork products to Singapore.
Chongqing and Heilongjiang will supply cooked processed pork. Hunan is currently the only province authorized to export chilled pork, frozen pork, and processed pork products to Singapore, said Wu Shenshu from Hunan’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
Wu noted that Huale Foodstuff is the sole Chinese company registered to export both raw and cooked pork to Singapore. The first shipments will represent Singapore’s initial imports of chilled pork from China.
Singapore does not raise pigs domestically and consumes about 70,000 tons of chilled pork annually. Wu said Hunan aims to capture roughly half of that market within two years, targeting more than 100 tons per day.
To support exports, Hunan’s agricultural authorities will work with Changsha Customs and other agencies to strengthen biosecurity controls across the supply chain to ensure food safety, Wu added.
Huale Foodstuff’s operations span hog breeding, slaughtering, and processing, with annual production of about 120,000 hogs, according to Xiao Min, head of agriculture and rural affairs in Hanshou County.
Xiao said that Hunan New Wellful, a pork producer with more than six decades of experience supplying hogs to Hong Kong, can provide Huale with an additional 200,000 hogs per year and technical assistance on medication use and disease prevention.
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