U.S. meat exports continue climb

U.S. feeds strong demand in Russia, South Korea

By TIM HEARDEN

Capital Press

U.S. meat exports finished the first half of 2010 with strong upward momentum, fueled partly by dramatic increases in beef shipments to South Korea and Russia, a trade group reports.

June beef exports were 25 percent above their volumes a year earlier, totaling 212.9 million pounds, while the value in June was up 37 percent to $377.6 million, according to USDA statistics compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation.

In all, 1.09 billion pounds of beef were sent outside the U.S. in the first half of 2010 -- a 14 percent jump from the first half of last year. The export volume to South Korea is nearly double the pace of 2009, and exports to Russia are up nearly 300 percent, the USMEF stated.

The strong numbers in South Korea should only continue as residents of that country prepare to celebrate Chuseok, a Thanksgiving-like holiday on Sept. 22, USMEF economist Erin Daley said.

"Exports to Russia will be minimal through the end of this year because the U.S. essentially filled its 21,700 (metric ton) tariff rate quota ... for beef exports to Russia," Daley told the Capital Press in an e-mail. She noted that exports in excess of the quota face a 50 percent duty.

Meanwhile, June pork exports of 164,000 metric tons were 24 percent higher than in June 2009, according to USMEF. For the first six months of the year, the volume of pork shipped outside the country was 3 percent higher than the first half of 2009, but improved pork prices pushed values 10 percent higher at $2.35 billion, the organization reported.

"You're seeing this because first we're the low-cost producer in the world, so when we send out pork to some of these markets, it's very competitive with the domestic markets," said Dave Warner, spokesman for the National Pork Producers Council. "We're offering a high-quality product at a low price, even in those other countries.

"You're also seeing in a lot of these other countries an emerging middle class" such as in China, where "backyard operations" can't produce enough pork for the country's upwardly mobile population, Warner said.

Beef exports performed well throughout Asia, including in Japan, where exports totaling 113.9 million pounds and valued at $270 million were a 29 percent increase over the first half of 2009 despite a continued 20-month age restriction on eligible cattle.

Pork exports to Japan rebounded in the second quarter after an early-2010 slump, caused mainly by high domestic pork industries, according to USMEF.

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U.S. Meat Export Federation: http://usmef.org