Thank you. I'll cover the next little section here.
Our worries over the lack of a free trade agreement with Korea became very acute in 2011 when virtually all of our competitors in that market started benefiting from their own countries' FTAs with South Korea. In the food business, a business of very small margins of profit, when facing tariffs of well over 20%, Canadian exporters have quickly found themselves unable to compete in that market as others acquire huge tariff advantages as has happened with the United States, the European Union, and Chile. Under their agreements for frozen pork, after the three years in which they have had tariff cuts, they now have a 15% tariff advantage on frozen pork, which is much greater than the typical profit margin on that cut of meat.
To illustrate the impact of Canada not having a free trade agreement with South Korea while its main competitors do, our exports to the end of August of this year are down by over 17% compared with those of last year while total Korean pork imports during the first eight months of this year show 13% growth. Our sales to a growing and affluent market, South Korea, are actually declining.
I would like to refer you to charts that were distributed to you showing Canadian pork and pork product exports to South Korea in 2011 and in 2013. The size of the circles on each page represents the relative magnitude of exports. I would make just two points based on these charts. Just in those two years from 2011 to 2013, we saw our exports decline by two-thirds, or $157 million. Secondly, I'd point out that there are circles right across the country. We have pork exports from every region of Canada going to South Korea.
We are a sector that relies on exports. In fact more than two-thirds of the hogs produced in Canada are exported either as live hogs or as pork products. Exports help the Canadian hog and pork industry to grow. Furthermore, the robust global demand for Canadian pork has resulted in increased value and volumes going to a broader base of customer countries. This has increased the market leverage and opportunities of the Canadian pork industry and has provided the opportunity to generate added value to the whole carcass.
However, we also need this trade agreement to re-establish conditions of competitive access to one of the world's most important pork import markets. Not long ago, Canada was South Korea's most important pork supplier. The gradual loss of this market in recent years has seriously affected Canadian pork exporters' ability to achieve the best returns available for the range of products derived from our pigs. This cannot easily, if at all, be made up from other markets.
In addition, world meat markets are subject to huge swings from one year to the next in conditions of competition and access. I would ask you to just look at this other chart that we distributed, which in addition to showing how steep the decline in our exports to South Korea has been illustrates the sharp year-to-year changes that occur in major markets like Russia and China and even the United States. A highly export-dependent industry like Canada's pork sector requires the best access to as many important international markets as possible; thus, the critical need for the rapid implementation of this agreement.
Market access will not fall into our laps. In addition to Canada passing this agreement with South Korea as soon as possible, we would need to work with Korea to ensure they quickly obtain the authority to implement the deal.
With the confidence being provided by speedy implementation of the agreement, the Canadian pork export community can work to fully restore our business relationships with the Korean meat industry. On this point, we would like to acknowledge the ongoing Canadian government efforts to promote Canadian agriculture in Korea. It was the pleasure of Jean-Guy, our chair, to have participated in one of those missions about a year ago, which was led by Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Ritz.
Jean-Guy.