Some 16 percent of U.S. red meat and poultry will be exported this year, a 900-million-pound increase from 2015, according to USDA estimates, which call for a modest increase in the new year. Sales were constrained last year by the strong dollar and trade barriers due to the bird flu epidemic.
Each major class of meat — beef, pork, broilers and turkey — will see larger exports as a percentage of production as well as tonnage, meaning exports carry increasing weight in the health of the livestock sector. The largest increases in percentage terms would be turkeys, up 0.7 points, and pork, up 0.6 points. The export share of pork, beef and broiler production is forecast to hold steady in 2017 while turkey would grow to 11 percent, a gain of 0.8 points, said the monthly Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Outlook.
Pork exports to China during April were nearly twice as large as the year before, “an unambiguous bright spot,” said the Outlook report. China is importing huge amounts of pork to satisfy strong consumer demand. Domestic production is down, resulting in very high meat prices. “While it is almost certain that the Chinese pork industry will gear up productive capacity at some point, Chinese prices for feeder pigs and live slaughter hogs do not appear to have yet topped out, implying that strong Chinese import demand is likely to persist at least through this year,” said USDA.