South Korean authorities have re-approved the first three German slaughter and processing plants for imports. This means that an important sales market in the Asian region has been reopened for German pork, as the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) wrote in a press release on 23rd May.
After a ban for two and a half years, deliveries of German pork to the Republic of Korea (South Korea) are possible again with immediate effect. After the first evidence of African Swine Fever (ASF) in Germany, South Korea imposed an import ban. Before the first German ASF outbreaks, in 2019, the Republic of Korea imported around 106,000 mt of pork from Germany. At just under €298 million, Korea was the second-largest buyer of pork from Germany among non-EU countries in 2019. However, it remains uncertain how the return of this former crucial partner will impact the current spot market, as it still unknown how much pork South Korean buyers are looking to source from Germany in the coming months.