Argentina on track for record pork production in 2023

According to the forecasts of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), in line with the dynamics of production in 2023, Argentina is on track to break the record this year with a potential production of 760,000 tons of pork. 

In the first four months of this year, 2.56 million pigs were slaughtered and production reached almost 240,000 tons of pork; this is already 7% higher than in the same period in 2022 and is a record high for the first four months of the year.

Pork production in Argentina. Source: BRCmercados based on SAGyP data 

Over the past five years, Argentines have increased their per capita pork consumption by 20%, which amounts to almost 3 kilograms of pork per capita per year. The increase in production is not enough to meet domestic demand, so over the past five years, 30,000 to 40,000 tons per year have had to be imported to meet demand. However, the gap between consumption and production is getting smaller and smaller, and this opens the way for the development of exports.

2022 was a very bad year in terms of exports, which fell to their lowest level since 2015. This year, Argentina had to resort mainly to Brazil to meet domestic demand, closing with a US$100 million trade deficit. However, 2023 presents better prospects; in the first quarter, imports were halved compared to the previous year over the same period, while exports rose by 40%, significantly reducing the trade deficit.

Figure 2. Capabilities of production to meet domestic consumption. Source: Department of Economic Information and Research based on SAGyP.