U.S. pork exports posted another strong performance in October, led by record-large shipments to Mexico and broad-based growth elsewhere. U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) President and CEO Dan Halstrom said that, on top of Mexico’s performance, October pork exports to Central America were among the largest on record.
“We had a very good month- about 245,000 tons exported on pork globally,” Halstrom said. “It’s up about 3% off of a very big number last year, led by Mexico about 101,000 metric tons, which is growth of almost 20%. But it’s not limited only Mexico. Central America is up about 35%. and the Caribbean as well. So those three regions have been strong for most of the year and that continues. But looking beyond that, South America had a rebound as well led by Colombia, the largest month we’ve had since the summer of last year. Korea was up a bit year-on-year, as was the Oceania region led by Australia. so yeah, very broad-based growth on pork.”
October beef exports remained well below last year’s large totals, but there were still some bright spots. Halstrom said demand strengthened year-over-year in Mexico, Taiwan, and Central America.
“For beef, still down for the year but there were some bright spots,” Halstrom said. “And similar to the pork side, Mexico on beef continues to be strong, really hitting on all cylinders – food service, retail, etc. in Mexico. Ten percent growth in Taiwan for October led by the chilled program business at retail. And Central America – very similar to the pork side, Central America is on a real roll there as well. A very good month in October with growth of 23%. As far as Asia is concerned, as I mentioned, Taiwan is up but Japan and Korea and China are down. The food service segment continues to lag and lags significantly. One other factor as it relates to Asia is the strong U.S. dollar, especially in Japan, but there have been some steps taken by the Asian governments to strengthen their currencies against the U.S. dollar. Of course, to the extent that some of these local currencies strengthen, that of course makes our products more competitive.”
For more information, visit usmef.org.
