Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 10/9/14


Fears of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDV) in Taiwan have been a boost to U.S. poultry exports as consumers there look to replace pork, according to USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service.

From January to July, U.S. poultry exports jumped nearly 45 percent in volume, or 87,415 metric tons, compared to the first half of 2013. For all of 2013, the U.S. exported 94,306 metric tons of poultry products to Taiwan, FAS said in an attaché report. 

Chicken leg quarters and drumsticks remain the most popular items in Taiwan, but requests for other products such as chicken breasts have been on the rise, the agency said.

An outbreak of PEDV in Taiwan has caused pork prices to increase dramatically over 2013. Foodservice operators report shrinking margins in pork meals as a result. In Taipei, a lunch box, for example, costs an average of about $2.60-$3.00, up some 10 percent from last year. The foodservice industry pays about 43 cents per portion for the pork loin meal. Meanwhile, it pays 27 cents for one chicken drumstick.

“As a result, demands for poultry have been increasing in the second and third quarter of (calendar year) 2014, which is when local pork prices hit a record high,” FAS reports.

Taiwanese importers tend to import more chicken wings and legs in the third quarter to avoid tariff surcharges from World Trade Organization's special agricultural safeguards (SSG) that are typically triggered in the latter half of the year. This year the chicken legs/wings SSG was triggered on Sept. 5, with a final volume of 121,426.8 metric tons. Last year, the SSG was triggered on Nov. 8, with a volume of 104,455.3 metric tons, FAS noted.

Taiwan produces about 80 percent of its own poultry products, with the United States and Canada filling in most of the rest.
Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture projects that pork prices may stabilize in the first quarter of 2015.

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