Blog: Embracing export culture and the importance of securing access to the Chilean pork market

This is great news for our pork industry as Chile and Mexico are described as among the most developed countries in Latin America, with the Chilean pork market worth an estimated £20 million to the sector over the first five years.

As part of the EU grandfather rights, the UK has inherited access to Chile's pork market under certain sanitary conditions. This represents a unique opportunity as the UK is exempt from the burden of an audit. AHDB, in partnership with the UK Export Certification Partnership (UKECP) played a key role in facilitating access to this new market, acting as the link between Defra and industry and a single point of contact for the 16 abattoirs and 11 cold stores in all four UK regions.

To keep momentum and discussion open with Chile, we submitted the completed registration forms and information requested by the Chilean Authority. Indeed, the entry process involved the UK authority putting forward sites that are compliant with UK domestic sanitary standards. Only those approved and listed by the Chilean Authority can export pork meat to Chile. 

AHDB’s role was to ensure that several UK pork sites and cold stores will benefit from this opportunity. We have actively engaged with the pork industry and highlighted the need to adopt a long-term strategic approach. The full potential of the market will require development over time until it does represent long-term opportunities for the UK pork sector, and we encourage exporters to embrace the market.

This exercise led me to look at other countries and their export culture to see if there are any lessons for the UK. Countries such as Australia and New Zealand are very export-focused, and fully embrace the activity to ensure access in as many countries as possible, adopting a long-term strategic approach. You may not need to export today or tomorrow but what about a year from now or if current market conditions change?

As a market access manager, my role involves being forward-looking and identifying any export opportunities. While Chile may not be a game-changer in terms of UK pork exports, it certainly represents an export opportunity and a change towards embracing the export culture. All the more, it is a relatively straightforward process.

In the spirit of embracing the exports, we were focused on putting forward several sites for approval to export to Chile. All registration forms and information received were submitted to Defra for review with other UK competent authorities, mainly the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and the Department of Agriculture Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), before Defra submitted the UK pork dossier to Chilean authorities.

Today’s (17 March 2022) announcement is a testament to the successful collaboration between AHDB, industry and the UK government to get UK pork into Chile.

The export health certificate and associated documents are available on the official export health certificate website.