Hog farmers squeal over China's tariffs that kill the market for offal exports

Fengjiang Wang loves a hearty bowl of steamed pig's blood pudding.

“You fill a giant bowl with half water and half pig blood, add a chicken egg and a little seasoning, put it in a steaming pot for half an hour, then you have delicious blood pudding,” says Wang, who lives at Songyuan, China.

Diners like Wang have provided a market for U.S. pork producers, who have counted on China to buy the feet, intestines, tongues, lungs, kidneys and other parts of pigs that Americans mostly shun. But China's retaliatory tariffs are undermining a key market that took nearly 60 percent of American pork offal exports in 2017.


Before the tariffs were increased, the Chinese had been buying more than 91 percent of U.S.-produced pig feet and 96 percent of pig heads, two of the largest category for pork by-products, or what the industry refers to as "variety meats," according to the Department of Agriculture.

“It’s a real big blow to producers to lose the Chinese market because of the variety meats,” said Ken Maschhoff, whose The Maschhoff hog farming operation based in Carlyle, Illinois, is one of the largest privately-held of its kind in the U.S. "It is a $30 million impact to our operation," typically making up a third and as much as half his profit.

In China, pig feet and ears are delicacies, often more expensive in rural markets than cuts like ribs and hams that Americans enjoy, according to Wang, a pork wholesaler.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/hog-farmers-squeal-over-chinas-tariffs-that-kill-the-market-for-offal-exports/ar-BBLneVV?li=BBnbfcN