After dipping to 2.27 billion pounds in 2015, U.S. beef exports are forecast to climb 9 percent this year, and to climb again next year, said the monthly Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Outlook. “The U.S. competitive advantage in beef production relative to other major beef producing nations has enabled it to increase its market in global beef trade,” says the USDA report.
Beef exports shrank earlier this decade as a result of downturn in U.S. cattle numbers and the strong dollar, which made all U.S. meat — pork and poultry as well as beef — more expensive compared to meat from other nations. Roughly 10 percent of U.S. beef production is exported. For this year, beef exports are forecast for 2.47 billion pounds this year and 2.58 billion pounds in 2017, a 4.5-percent increase. The forecast for exports in 2017 is roughly the same as the totals in 2013 and 2014.
The UK vote to leave the EU will have little impact on U.S. meat and dairy exports, said the Outlook. In the first four months of this year, far less than 1 percent of U.S. exports of animal products went to the UK and the EU.