Newly released export results for September continuing to show a strong performance for the U.S. beef industry, with exports of beef and beef variety meat totaling $4.52 billion. In terms of volume, exports are up 1 percent to 861,715 metric tons, but in terms of sales the numbers through three quarters are 10 percent ahead of last year’s record pace.
Dan Halstrom, U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) senior vice president for marketing and communications, explains that beef exports to Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan have far outpaced 2012 levels this year, with September being no exception. But he also notes that beef exports to Mexico and South Korea, two markets that struggled in the first half of 2013, have gained significant momentum in recent weeks.
U.S. pork is also performing well in most markets, including China/Hong Kong, the ASEAN region of Southeast Asia and Central/South America according to the results released. But on a global basis, U.S. pork and pork variety meat exports are down 5 percent in both volume (1.57 million metric tons) and value ($4.42 billion) compared to the first three quarters of 2012. Russian officials shutting down exports of both U.S. pork and beef in February has been a significant setback for the pork industry, but Japan is still by far the No. 1 value market for U.S. pork (through September, $1.41 billion) despite increased competition that's begun to erode the U.S. share of Japan’s imported pork market. To read more, click HERE.
