IARN — The U.S. Meat Export Federation says red meat exports raced to a record performance in March with pork and beef exports each posting the highest monthly value ever, reaching a combined total of nearly $1.6 billion.
USMEF President and CEO Dan Halstrom says pork exports also set a new volume record at nearly 295,000 metric tons, despite shipments to leading market China/Hong Kong being lower year-over-year.
“A new record on pork, but I think the exciting thing going on is it was really broad-based growth across many different countries,” said Halstrom. “We’ve been talking a lot about China here lately and China had a decent month, but it was actually down 8%. So, for us to see growth, a lot of countries had to step in.”
Halstrom notes that beef exports topped $800 million for the first time in March, fueled by solid growth in South Korea and a surge in exports to China, as the U.S. industry continues to expand its supply of China-eligible beef.
“March stats for beef were record breaking,” said Halstrom. “It was the first time we’ve broken through that $800 million level for a single month. Once again, pretty broad-based results. Korea was one of our leaders. We were up 7% there.”
A complete summary of March/first quarter U.S. red meat export results is available from the USMEF website.
Story courtesy of the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network
