January 15, 2008

November US pork exports set record
 

US exports of pork and pork variety meats in November set a monthly record and helped ensure the 2007 total should also establish a record.

A gain in the 2007 total would make it the 16th straight year for growth and a record for US pork exports. The availability of the meat export data lags by about six weeks from the end of the month being reported.

Market analysts and agricultural economists said the strong export sales have helped keep hog prices from falling further than they have by shipping overseas the equivalent of nearly one of every seven hogs slaughtered.

Glenn Grimes, agricultural economist at the University of Missouri, calculated November exports at 14 percent of production. The value of the international sales for pork plus pork variety meats in November amounted to about US$33 for every hog slaughtered.

The US Department of Agriculture's meat export data for November show the total for pork and pork variety meats, including organ meats such as hearts and livers, was 141,380  tonnes. That figure beat the previous high of 130,424 tonnes set just one month earlier. November's tonnenage was up 15.7 percent from a year ago.

The back-to-back months of huge sales put the year-to-date volume at 1.177 million tonnes, 2.6 percent above the figure posted for the same period in 2006. With a gain of 29,361 tonnes as of November and just one month of data left for 2007, December exports would have to exceed just 85,303 tonnes for 2007 sales to beat the 2006 total of 1,262,499 tonnes, according to monthly and annual data compiled by the US Meat Export Federation. The monthly average for 2007 is now at 114,773 tonnes.

Exports of pork muscle meats, the higher valued cuts, in November were reported at 114,885 tonnes, a gain of 15.0 percent from the same period in 2006. Year-to-date volume is up 2 percent, while the increase in value is reported at 9.3 percent.

The year-to-date value of total pork exports at the end of November stood at nearly US$2.857 billion, just US$7.4 million below the 2006 total. Market analysts and meat brokers said the cheap US dollar along with low prices overall due to record large production have contributed greatly to the growth in pork exports this year.

Countries or regions showing the most growth from a year ago are China/Hong Kong at up 55,700 tonnes, Japan up 24,400 tonnes, and Canada up 13,400 tonnes. The largest declines came in Mexico at 60,123 tonnes, Eastern Europe off 11,485 tonnes, Taiwan down 7,893 tonnes, and South Korea down 7,831 tonnes.