It sounds great on paper. We saw record exports to China of U.S. pork products. This happened during a trade war between the two largest economies in the world. However, before you get too excited, remember we wouldn?t have seen numbers like this had it not been for African Swine Fever. (ASF)
Joel Haggard is the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) Senior Vice President for the Asia Pacific. He says hog prices in China hit their peak in November because of AFS. This accelerated the demand even further. What?s amazing is this happened while we had a 60% tariff on our pork going to China.
The damage caused by ASF will not be fixed overnight. While the export numbers should still be good in 2020, USMEF is tempering their excitement. There are still many factors at play in protecting our market access.
USMEF’s full summary of November exports for U.S. pork, beef and lamb is available online.
