Posted 2019/3/31
According to figures released by the British Food and Drink Federation (FDF), the UK’s worldwide exports of pork rose by a dramatic 92 percent. The source of this massive increase? China’s love of eating pig trotters, apparently.
Eight-two percent of all UK pork exports went to China, generating a revenue of £201 million. “There is a strong demand for pork in China and consumers like parts of the animal that we don’t consume, such as whole pig head and trotters,” Terry Jones from the FDF was quoted as saying. China’s affinity for parts shunned by most British people has in fact massively helped the UK’s pork “waste disposal”, where exports of unwanted parts to China rose by 18 percent to reach 47,534 tons.
The meat industry has become an increasingly important component in Sino-British trade and is directly correlated to Britain’s increase in exports. Last year, Britain signed a £45 million pound deal with China allowing it to export fresh and frozen porcine semen (that’s right, the semen of pigs!) with the aim of giving China’s pig gene pool a healthy dose of diversity.
