The first container was shipped off on Monday 23 April 2018. The 25,000 kg shipment will travel by sea to Tianjin Port.
“The Chinese pork market is the world’s largest,” said Jukka Nikkinen, head of HKScan exports. “Rather than focusing on bulk volume, however, our key strengths in China are great flavour and the world-class expertise of Finnish family farms. Pork quality requirements in China are among the world’s strictest. The Chinese utilise all parts of the carcase in their cuisine. Our customers are interested in carcase parts that might seem exotic from a European perspective, such as meaty bones and feet, which are highly valued and important raw ingredients in Chinese cuisine. These cuts are also included in the first shipment.”
HKScan aims to ship roughly three million kilograms of pork to China this year and plans to triple that volume by 2020. Relative to the volume of pork currently produced annually in Finland, this would mean that at least 5% of all Finnish-reared pigs would end up on Chinese dining tables through HKScan. The products will be targeted at the Chinese retail sector, industrial customers and the HoReCa (foodservice) sector.
“We are delighted to have the opportunity to celebrate the long-awaited launch of Chinese exports from our Forssa unit. This milestone will open up new earnings opportunities for our entire value chain and strengthen confidence in the international competitiveness of the Finnish food industry. Our chief competitive assets are our high levels of professional expertise throughout our entire farm to fork chain, all the way from our contract farms to our production units,” added Jari Latvanen, CEO of HKScan.
The business announced its launch into the Chinese market at the end of February.