May 27, 2008

US pork exports to stimulate industry
  
  

The export market will continue to stimulate the US pork industry, according to Philip Seng, president of US Meat Export Federation (USMEF).

Seng said the weak US dollar and competitive pricing for US exports are reasons that lead to high pork export volume.

US pork production has increased 12 percent on-year and without exports, the US market would be flooded with an additional 60,000 hogs per day, according to USMEF estimations.

The China/Hong Kong market was the largest US pork importer in terms of volume, accounting for 164.7 million pounds in January to February 2008, up 287 percent on-year.

However, Japan remains the top market in terms of value at US$210.9 million, or 31 percent of total pork exports value.

Other important US pork export markets include Mexico and Canada as well as Russia. Mexico imported 122 million pounds in the first two months of 2008, Canada imported 59 million pounds while Russia also imported 59 million pounds, up 164 percent on-year.

However, pork exports to South Korea fell by 2 percent to 53 million pounds.