Good news in ‘tough year’ for US meat exports
The US Meat Export Federation (USMEF) has praised a “strong” month of global meat exporting that has seen beef volumes climb 27% and pork exports increase by 16% to 186,689 tonnes (t) – the largest amount of pork ever exported by the US in August.
The value of US pork exports climbed by 19% to $512.76m for the month. Trade from January to August is also up 1% on last year’s figures, worth $3.78bn.
“US livestock producers deserve some good news in what has been a tough year, and this upward trend in exports is very encouraging,” Philip Seng, USMEF president and CEO said in a statement.
“Currently US beef and pork are very competitive, as the production of our key competitors – Australia and the European Union – has moderated and prices have jumped. As US competitiveness continues to improve, we remain optimistic that exports will maintain positive momentum through the end of this year and into 2017.”
Mexico rebounds
Pork production for August was at its highest-recorded level over the last eight months and export-destined meat accounted for nearly a quarter (24%) of all production. Per head, the value of slaughtered pigs works out at $49.36 in August, up 7% from a year ago and exceeding 2015’s average for the third month in a row.
The US accounts for around 15% of the world’s total pork exports, according to the World’s Top Exports, which uses information from the Meat Atlas – a project funded by the European Commission.
Mexico is a key pork market for the US and it has started to show signs of recovery for US pork exporters, after months of currency volatility and a slump in labour at key Mexican shipping ports.
August saw pork trade climb to 64,620t – easily the highest level in 2016. However, exports over January to August are still down 6% in volume and 2% in market value.
Chilled pork exports to Japan are still enjoying their surge with a 14% year-on-year increase to 147,000t for 2016. A fall in frozen pork dampened what otherwise appears to be an increasingly important market for the US pork sector.
