Nearly 1 of every 4 pounds of U.S. red meat and poultry exports goes to Mexico, the overall top customer of U.S. food and agriculture exports, says the USDA. Mexico was the destination for 24 percent of beef, pork, mutton, broilers and turkey exports in 2018, nearly double the 13 percent market share of the second-highest buyer, Japan, according to USDA’s monthly Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Outlook. South Korea ranked third at 8 percent, with Canada and China tied for fourth, at 7 percent apiece.
Mexico was the leading export market for pork, mutton, broilers and turkey and the third-largest market for beef.
However, pork exports to Mexico took a hit at the start of this year, down by nearly 13 percent from January 2018. Exports to China, a much smaller market for pork, were down by 34 percent. “Shipments to most major U.S. foreign markets were lower, hindered by a combination of retaliatory tariffs in Mexico and China, and by the start-up of two trade agreements, in particular, to which the United States is not a party,” said the USDA, referring to the so-called TPP11 and a Japan-EU pact.
Mexico and China have imposed retaliatory tariffs on pork, among other U.S. products.
China may agree to import U.S. poultry, now banned because of a bird flu epidemic in 2014 and 2015, and buy more pork as part of a settlement of the Sino-U.S. trade war, reported Reuters, based on “two sources with knowledge of the negotiations. But China has refused to consider imports of pork produced with the growth stimulant ractopamine.