Exports of US beef and pork trended lower in April due in large part to obstacles in China.
“China we knew would have an off month in April,” says Dan Halstrom, President & CEO of the U.S. Meat Export Federation. “It was really the start of the disruption and the height of the tariffs, almost 150% tariffs on beef throughout April.”
Halstrom says we’re down almost 70% on China volume year-on-year for beef. While Chinese beef buying was disappointing, there was good news from other regions.
“Korea, up 18% – very big number for Korea. Central America up big. You also had a pretty good month with Japan and also South America, good month. Although Chile and Peru had good numbers, really Colombia is the bright spot there. We’ve really been trying to regain share since last April when we had basically U.S. beef out of the market for about five or six months around this HPAI in dairy cattle issue. So, we’ve been trying to scramble and regain share. We’re very excited about that.”
For pork, China was down significantly. Halstrom says they were down about 35% primarily on variety meats. Mexico was also a bit down compared to a record a year ago.
“But one thing to remember on Mexico, even at 91,000 tons, that’s still a very, very good month. The other markets, though, Central America continues to perform well. They have for more than a year now, really on fire in both beef and pork. And a huge month into Columbia, 12,000 metric tons. That’s up about 60% from a year ago. So, it’s really satisfying to see us continuing to expand our share down in Colombia.”
Halstrom adds that lamb exports, which primarily go to Mexico and the Caribbean, trended higher in April.
Source: U.S. Meat Export Federation
