Iowa is the number one pork producing state in the U.S. and the top state for pork exports. With more than 5,400 pig farms, nearly one-third of the nation’s hogs are raised in Iowa. As IPPA has continued to lay out its priorities for the year, Past President Mike Paustian says one of the top goals is for the U.S. to further diversify its pork export markets.

“Export markets are still going to be a big topic this year,” Paustian said. “China has come in and really bought a tremendous amount of pork in the last year, but we certainly don’t expect that to continue long-term. Pig prices in China are just astronomical and have been for a long time. There is a tremendous amount of money being put into growing and modernizing their domestic production. We are certainly expecting that their purchases will not be sustainable at the level they’ve been at here recently.”

Data from IPPA shows that in 2019, Japan, Mexico, China, Canada, and South Korea were the leading value export markets for Iowa pork. The largest export markets by volume were Mexico, China, Japan, Canada and South Korea.

“It certainly is in our best interest to diversify our export markets and look to get trade deals done with other countries,” Paustian said. “Just there in Southeast Asia, we’ve got Vietnam and the Philippines that are both tremendous pork consumers. They also have been hit by African Swine Fever. I think the Philippines recently announced that they are looking to triple their pork imports. Those and others are certainly emerging markets.”

The US Meat Export Federation says 2020 was a record year for U.S. pork exports.