Buyer guides
Export Guides & Technical Resources
Practical technical and export guidance for importers, distributors and procurement teams — covering pork specifications, documentation, logistics, market access and compliance.
Guides are written from primary regulatory, customs and trade sources, and every guide lists the instruments it relies on.
Featured guide
Market access20 sources
Importing pork into Asian markets: what governs access
How access to Asian pork markets works: the importing authority's acceptance of the origin, establishment listing, a bilateral health certificate, and the import clearance or quarantine registration required on arrival.
Specifications & cuts
8 sources
Pork leg cuts: 3D, 4D, 5D and 6D explained
How the D-cut scale for pork legs works, what each step removes, and why the number always has to be backed by a written specification rather than used on its own.
12 sources
Pork primal cuts: an international guide
How the main pork primals are cut and named across EU, US and Asian markets, and why international contracts should identify goods by tariff code and written specification rather than by cut name.
10 sources
Pork trimmings: what 80/20 and 70/30 mean
How pork trimmings ratios such as 80/20 and 70/30 are written and assessed, why visual lean is a specification rather than a guaranteed analytical result, and where EU law caps fat and collagen.
15 sources
How to read a pork specification sheet
A field-by-field guide to pork technical data sheets — cut description, bone and rind status, weight band, temperature, shelf life, packing, HS code and origin — and why the spec is the contract reference.
Export documentation
12 sources
Incoterms 2020 for meat imports
A practical breakdown of the 11 Incoterms 2020 rules for refrigerated and frozen meat: where risk and cost transfer under FCA, FOB, CFR, CIF, DAP and DDP, and where the rules stop.
20 sources
The document set for a meat import
The documents that travel with a meat consignment, what each one proves, who issues it, and where the CHED and TRACES sit when the destination is inside the EU.
11 sources
MOQ and lead time in meat trade: what actually sets them
Why minimum order quantity in pork export follows container and pallet logic rather than an arbitrary number, what really drives lead time, and what a buyer must supply to get a firm answer.
12 sources
Pork HS codes explained
How HS heading 0203 divides pork into six international subheadings, what carcase, bone-in ham and "other" actually mean, and where the EU’s 8-digit CN code takes over.
Logistics & cold chain
10 sources
Chilled vs frozen pork: how to choose
How EU law fixes chilled pork at 7 °C and offal at 3 °C, why quick-frozen product sits at −18 °C, what each state does to shelf life and packing, and how to decide by route and market.
11 sources
Cold chain compliance for pork export
What temperature EU law requires pork to hold from chilling to delivery, what has to be recorded, and what a break in the cold chain costs at the border and under the contract.
11 sources
Loading a 40ft reefer with pork
How internal dimensions, pallet footprints, carton modules and T-floor airflow decide what actually fits in a 40ft high-cube reefer — and why the set point is not the product temperature.
7 sources
What determines pork shelf life, chilled and frozen
Learn what actually sets pork shelf life — initial microbial load, temperature history, packaging atmosphere and pH — and why chilled life is limited by microbial growth while frozen life is limited by quality loss.
Packing & private label
10 sources
Private label pork: what to specify
How to write a private-label pork brief: who is legally responsible for the label, the mandatory particulars under Regulation 1169/2011, origin and batch rules, and what drives minimum runs.
9 sources
Vacuum packing, IWP and block frozen compared
What vacuum packing, IWP and block frozen actually are, how each affects shelf life and presentation, and how the choice changes carton weight, pallet efficiency and who can use the product.
Market access
Quality & compliance
9 sources
Country of origin labelling for pork
How Regulation (EU) 1337/2013 requires “Reared in” and “Slaughtered in” on fresh, chilled and frozen pork, when a single “Origin” claim is allowed, and why label origin is not customs origin.
12 sources
How to verify an EU meat supplier
How EU establishment approval numbers work under Regulation (EC) 853/2004, what each element of the oval identification mark means, and how to check a supplier in the official lists published through TRACES NT.
12 sources
Traceability requirements for meat: what a buyer can ask for
How EU meat traceability actually works: the one-step-back, one-step-forward duty under Article 18, the data that must travel with a consignment, and what a pork batch code should resolve to.
8 sources
Trichinella testing in EU pork: what Regulation (EU) 2015/1375 requires
How Regulation (EU) 2015/1375 governs Trichinella examination at slaughter, the Member State conditions the controlled housing derogation really depends on, the Annex II freezing route, and what the certificate has to carry.
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