November 13, 2012

US pork export volumes remain steady for September 2012 as compared to 2011's volume.

Beef exports were well below a year ago.

Despite sluggish volumes, however, the value of both pork and beef exports through the third quarter of 2012 remains ahead of last year's record-setting pace, according to statistics released by USDA and compiled by the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF).

"We are definitely in a challenging economic environment, which is making it difficult to match last year's export volumes," said Philip Seng, USMEF president and CEO. "But our products continue to command an excellent price in the international markets and provide substantial returns to US producers, which is critically important at a time when they face extremely high production costs."

September pork exports reached 183,853 tonnes, slightly exceeding last year's total. Though export value declined 6% compared to last year to US$505 million, it was about 2% higher than the August value of US$495.5 million.

For January through September, pork exports were up 2% in volume at 1.657 million tonnes and up 6% in value to US$4.6 billion. Exports equated to 23.6% of muscle cut production and 27% when including both muscle cuts and variety meat (compared to last year's ratios of 22.8% and 27%). Export value equated to US$56.16 per head slaughtered, 4.5% above the per-head average established during the same period last year.

With fewer production days this year, September beef production declined 9% and exports fell 17% in volume to 90,538 tonnes. September export value dropped 4% to US$442.8 million, but was significantly higher on a per-head-of-fed-slaughter basis – increasing 7%.

Despite January-September beef export volume being down 12% to 850,439 tonnes, export value totaled US$4.1 billion. This was 2% above last year's record pace and already exceeded the 2010 full calendar year total of US$4.08 billion. Exports equated to 9.8% of muscle cut production and 12.7% when including both muscle cuts and variety meat, compared to last year's ratios of 11% and 14%. Export value averaged US$213.63 per head of fed slaughter, up about 6% compared to the same period in 2011.