(by Riley Smith IARN) Led by another outstanding month in Mexico and robust demand for variety meat, exports of U.S. pork continued to gain momentum in May, according to data released by USDA and compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF). USMEF President and CEO Dan Halstrom said a wide range of markets contributed to the growth in pork exports.
“Mexico has been on a record pace all year,” Halstrom said. “That continues in the month of May, with growth of 21% – really hitting on all cylinders in both variety meats, as well as hams and shoulder meat and other products going down there from the U.S. But it’s not just about Mexico, it’s really broad-based growth across the world. You know, China’s up 19%, mainly driven by pork variety meats, Korea’s up 25% At 21,000 tons for May. And a couple of other markets that we don’t talk a lot about that are seeing significant traction and maybe partly related to the fact that supplies out of Europe are considerably lower than they were a year ago at this time, but we’ve seen dramatic growth in Australia, mainly on boneless ham, muscles being exported from the U.S. up over 200%. Malaysia is up as well, as is Taiwan. So, these are some markets that are really contributing to the bottom line that were not in the picture a year ago.”
May pork exports reached 261,361 metric tons (mt), up 16% from a year ago, the ninth largest on record and the largest since May 2021. Export value climbed 12% to $731.1 million, also the highest since May 2021 and the seventh highest on record. Pork variety meat exports were particularly outstanding in May, setting a value record of $127 million.
While well below the record-large volume and value posted in May 2022, beef exports improved from April and were the second largest (behind March) of 2023.
“The markets that stand out: Mexico up 9%, but that follows several months of increases, so we’re seeing a really strong start to the year,” Halstrom said. “Canada was up in the month of May. We’re also looking at Taiwan. Taiwan had one of their better months of the year.”
Halstrom added that beef exports saw month-over-month growth despite a continued decline in exports to Japan.
“We have several headwinds there- a strong U.S. dollar, you’ve got logistics impacts, which they’ll take some time for the logistics to recover once we get the West Coast port contract signed and sealed, food service has been an underperformer this year,” Halstrom said. “We were hopeful, and we still are hopeful for a rebound in food service on beef to Asia, but it’s definitely been slow in coming.”
Beef exports totaled 116,159 mt, down 14% from the May 2022 record but up 4% from the previous month. Export value was $874.7 million, down 19% year-over-year but 2% above April. May exports strengthened to Mexico, Taiwan and South Africa, and export value to Canada was the highest in nearly eight years. Beef variety meat exports were the largest in 12 months at just under 27,000 mt. For January through May, beef and beef variety exports were down 10% to 554,069 mt, valued at $4.09 billion (down 21%).
For more information, visit usmef.org.
