Mixed results for US meat exports
According to the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF), which compiled the results, beef exports have continued the trend of higher export values on lower export volumes. While pork exports have improved slightly from the levels recorded in December, they have remained behind year-ago totals.
Exports of pork to Hong Kong, Canada, Taiwan and Japan have shown solid growth and led the improvement in figures. Beef exports in January rose by 9.3% in value on last year, although export volumes have decreased by 3.2% for the same period.
The exports of pork did show some growth on December, but still closed at 7.6% lower in value and 11.7% on volume compared to January last year.
Philip Seng, president and CEO of USMEF, said: “The year ahead will offer no shortage of challenges to red meat exports, which will require our industry to be creative and aggressive. On the beef side, we are still dealing with market access barriers in Saudi Arabia and significant obstacles in Russia, but there are signs for optimism in the months ahead with expanded beef access to Japan and Hong Kong that will provide a boost.”
Seng also noted that an “overabundance” of domestic pork in South Korea led to a decrease in demand for imports. He pointed out that China’s “aggressive” efforts to develop its domestic pork industry was “baring fruit” and the country was therefore importing less.
He said: “The continued devaluation of the Japanese yen, which has fallen 20% in value versus the U.S. dollar since last summer, will be a factor in purchasing patterns by this key trading partner for both beef and pork.”
Beef Exports
In January this year, US beef exports hit 86,608 metric tonnes (mt) with a value of US$443.8m. There was a decline in volume on last January, however, because of a 91.5% drop in exports to Russia.
The sharp decline in exports to Russia stemmed from the country delisting US beef plants for using the growth promotion drug ractopamine.
Canada bought in more than 16,000mt of US beef in January, which was up 32% on last year and valued at US$102.9m (+42%). Hong Kong increased US beef imports by 144% in volume and 115% in value.
Exports of beef to South Korea rose by 12.2% in value, but volumes decreased by 1%.
Pork
Total US pork exports for January 2013 were 186,681mt and was valued at US$523.7m, which was a decline of 11.7% in volume and 7.6% in value compared to last January
Japan was the value leader for US pork exports and bought in more than 37,000mt of the meat at a value of US$173.6.
Mexico purchased +55,000mt, which was down 9% on last January, while Russia bought in 3,314mt (+8.2% on last year). However, USMEF said that some of those purchases may have been made in anticipation of Russia closing its borders to US beef and pork in February this year.
Of the figures Seng said: “Looking ahead, USMEF is focusing on building demand for chilled and branded pork in both Japan and Korea as well as overall consumer demand for pork in Mexico. We will see benefits from these campaigns in the year ahead.”
