Price is the most important driver of Chinese imports of US pork. While the domestic price of the meat hovers around 22 yuan ($3.46) a kg, US-imported pork costs about 14 yuan per kg, giving the US an advantage, Wang said.

Through June this year, China had imported 270,000 metric tons of US pork, up 50 percent from the first six months of 2011 and making up 48 percent of the country's total pork imports.

Despite the increases in imports, Chinese produces nearly five times as much pork as the US. Since only a small fraction of the pork that China consumes comes from abroad, overseas price increases are likely to curtail pork imports to only a small extent, Wang said.

That view was reinforced by Jing Jizhong, operations director at the China Animal Husbandry Association, who also explained that Chinese consumers are far more likely than US residents to eat offal made from the internal organs of hogs and other types of specialty meats.

Even a sharp decline in overall US supply won't be likely to disrupt shipments of pork offal to the Asian markets, where it's most popular, he said.

Contact the writers at josephboris@chinadailyusa.com and yuwei12@chinadailyusa.com