DENVER — China’s General Administration of Customs announced another update to its approved US establishment list eligible for export, including an additional 11 US beef establishments and eight US pork establishments.

On Nov. 24, the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF) reported that China cleared the first US meat plants for export in 10 months: 18 beef and 12 pork establishments. With the most recent update, a total of 49 meat plants have gained China’s approval for export.

The streamlined plant approval process was made possible through the Phase One Agreement between the United States and China.

“The Phase One Agreement has many benefits for US agriculture, but particularly related to plant approvals,” said Erin Borror, USMEF vice president for economic analysis. “Since the 2020 implementation of the Phase One Agreement China has further rolled out plant and establishment registration processes that are fairly complex. And fortunately for US beef and pork, Phase One takes precedence.”

Borror pointed out that the plant approval process was working up until 2023, when the US meat industry stopped seeing additional establishments cleared for export. She said it was “a big sigh of relief” once China began recognizing the Phase One Agreement and updating the plant list again.

US pork variety shipments to China this year are up 9% from last year, according to USMEF. While US beef shipments to China are down 23% from last year, China is still a major destination for US beef — the fourth largest after Korea, Japan and Mexico.

Following the announcement from China’s General Administration of Customs, the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) voiced some concerns.

“While NPPC welcomed the news, it remains concerned with China’s tariffs on and non-tariff barriers to US pork,” the group said in its capital update for the week ending Dec. 1. “For example, China still requires all food manufacturers, processors and storage facilities to be registered and bans the feed additive ractopamine. Since April 2018, China imposed a 25% retaliatory tariff on US pork in response to US duties on a host of Chinese products over China’s steel and aluminum exports to the United States.”