Colombia sends its first shipment of pork to a third market

After six months of negotiations, Colombia will send its first shipment third market- 25 tons of pork to Angola.

A result, 25 tons of pork will leave from the port in Cartagena for Angola, after more than six months of negotiations with the country's health authorities. This will be Colombia's first shipment to a third market.

70% of the meat to be exported is from animals from the Antioquia, Valle del Cauca and Meta regions, which are areas free of Classical Swine Fever (CSF).

Angola's average imports between 2014 and 2018 total 807,121 tons, with Brazil (31%), Portugal (6%), Belgium (3%) and Argentina (2%) as the main suppliers, among others.

Jeffrey Fajardo Lopez, president of the Porkcolombia Association, National Pork Fund, proudly stated, "This is a historic moment for the Colombian pork industry which has had the dream of entering international markets. Today, we are making that dream a reality with the export of this first container to Angola, and thus beginning a new stage of pig production in Colombia."

Porkcolombia and the Colombian Agricultural Institute (Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario) are also working to be able to export Colombian pork to countries such as: China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, and other countries such as Guatemala and Ecuador.

It is worth noting that the highest pork production of all time has been recorded throughout 2019. July saw the highest production, reaching 39,835 tons. In the first 8 months of the year, the estimated production of pork amounted to 289,255 tons, a increase of 10.9% (28,448 additional tons) compared to the same period in 2018, when 260,807 tons were produced. So far this year Colombian exports of pork to Venezuela have reached $7.8 million USD.

Over the past year Colombia produced 410,270 tons of pork, with the principal producing areas being Antioquia (45%), Cundinamarca (18.1%), Valle del Cauca (15%), Eje Cafetero (8.6%) and Meta (5.6%). In terms of the industry's production value, last year it was worth $2.6 billion USD, representing 1.4% of agricultural GDP and 4.8% of livestock GDP.

pig333.com