February 2, 2012

US exports to be driven by Chinese meat demand

China's meat demand is expected to drive the increase of US meat exports in 2012.

Brett Stuart, co-founder of Global AgriTrends, forecasts US pork exports to advance 2.7%, beef exports to rise 10.8% and broilers to increase 2.4%.

Stuart said demand from South Korea will also be strong because of an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in 2011, leading to a culling of about 30% of the country's hog inventory. Some of those farms will not be back into production, so volumes of pork could be as much as 35% above the five-year average, he said.