China has named three European pork businesses – Dutch company Vion, Danish Crown and Spanish business Litera – as the focus for its anti-dumping investigation into EU pork.
China announced the investigation in June after the EU imposed provisional duties of up to 37.6% on Chinese-made electric vehicles.
In a statement on Thursday, China’s commerce ministry said the authorities will conduct the anti-dumping investigation using samples from the three companies.
The investigation, which is expected to last up to a year but could be extended for another six months, will focus on fresh, cold and frozen whole cuts, as well as pig intestines, bladders and stomachs. It could ultimately result in new tariffs being imposed, which would have a major impact on the EU pork sector, which ships a lot of pork products, particularly offal, to China.
China imported $6 billion worth of pork, including offal, in 2023 and more than half of that came from the EU, according to Chinese customs data. Spain is the biggest EU pork supplier to China, followed by the Netherlands, Denmark and France.
Reuters reports that China’s probe appears mainly aimed at Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark, which analysts said were seen as supportive of the EV tariffs.
Farmer-owned Danish Crown, one of the world’s biggest pork exporters, said it was fully committed to the investigation, Reuters reported.
“Danish Crown has registered to participate in the investigation and submitted all relevant information to the investigating authority,” the company said.
Vion Boxtel and Litera Meat did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while Spanish pork producers group Interporc reiterated that it would fully cooperate with the investigation.