January 18, 2006

US pork exports sets record in 2005
 

US pork exports for January through November 2005 by volume and value topped the 2004 total-year figures, ensuring that 2005's totals will be a new record when the year-end data are released next month.

2005 also marked the 15th consecutive record-breaking year for US pork export sales.

Pork exports for the first 11 months of 2005 stood at 823,214 tonnes, up 22 percent from the same period a year ago, according to the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF) website. The value of those sales was reported at nearly US$2.086 billion, which also was 22 percent above the same-period year-ago figure.

USMEF is the trade association responsible for developing international markets for US beef, pork and lamb.

Total pork export, which include the muscle meats plus pork-variety items such as tongues, livers and hearts, for January-November amounted to nearly 1.053 million tonnes, a gain of 13 percent from a year ago. The value of those sales was reported at almost US$2.410 billion, which represented a 19 percent increase from the same period in 2004.

Contributing to the gains in pork exports were bans on imports of US beef by a number of key international trading partners such as Japan, the Republic of Korea, and China/Hong Kong. Japan and the Republic of Korea recently eased their bans on imports of US beef.

The import bans on US as well as Canadian beef by most of the trading partners in Asia since late 2003 contributed to the increase in pork sales there. Now that some of the countries have reopened their markets to US beef, there have been concerns that pork sales to those countries could decline from levels achieved the past two years.

However, there has been significant growth in sales to other countries and regions of the world. For example, for the January-November period, sales to Eastern Europe were up nearly 20,000 tonnes, or 256 percent, from 2004. A similar tonnage gain was seen into the Oceania region, or Australia and New Zealand. Sales to the Caribbean countries grew by approximately 5,000 tonnes, or 42 percent, during that period.

"Our focus on US pork has assisted in generating a 13 percent worldwide increase in US pork and pork variety meat export volume in addition to a 19 percent increase in value in the first 11 months of 2005," said Brett Stuart, USMEF director in a press release last week. "Those numbers, along with continued USMEF efforts will lead to a favourable forecast for 2006."