Slight increase in EU pork exports in 2025
The 27 member states of the European Union exported 4.30 million tons of pork and by-products to countries outside the EU last year, according to figures shared by the European Commission. That is a slight increase compared to 2024, when the export volume was 4.20 million tons by product weight.
Over the past 3 years, the export volume of the EU member states has been very consistent. In previous years, the total amount was much higher, peaking in 2020. Due to African Swine Fever (ASF) in China and subsequent meat shortages, the EU countries exported 6.23 million tons of pork and by-products that year.
China: the largest buyer of pork
China has remained the largest buyer of pork products from the EU, accounting for a quarter of the exported volume (1,069,909 tons). The United Kingdom is a close second, with 856,102 tons last year.
Other major importers of EU pork in 2025 included South Korea (262,882 tons), Japan (256,731 tons), Vietnam (180,275 tons), USA (107,927 tons), Australia (87,440 tons) and Taiwan (77,934 tons). The rest of the world imported another 1,399,151 tons of pork.
EU pork exports came under pressure at the beginning of 2026. China has imposed import tariffs of up to 19.8% for the next 5 years. Agribusiness bank Rabobank projected, in its most recent pork market update, that increasing levels of competition are to be expected from Brazil in the international meat market.
Major pork exporting countries in the EU
As for the major exporting countries to third countries within the EU, Spain topped the list with 1,340,237 tons, followed by the Netherlands (665,555 tons) and Denmark (632,365 tons). For a long time EU’s largest pig country, Germany, has been in dire straits of late due to ASF-related export restrictions. The country exported 334,895 tons of pork in 2025 – whereas in the years prior to 2020 this was over 1,000,000 tons per year.
Join 18,000+ subscribers
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated about all the need-to-know content in the pigsector, three times a week.
