Wedoany.com Report-Mar 12, U.S. beef exports trended higher than a year ago in January, according to data released by USDA and compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF). Pork exports were slightly below last January’s large totals, despite another outstanding performance in Mexico and Central America.
USMEF President and CEO Dan Halstrom shares that continued momentum from late 2024 and a good month for beef increased volume.
“Volume was up 3% overall and value up a little over 5%,” Halstrom says.
Key markets contributing were Korea, China and Canada.
“Central America had a 24% increase during the month on the value side,” Halstrom adds.
He puts a cautionary note on the China numbers.
“While the business has been good the last half of 2024 and good here in early 2025, we do have a large pending issue on plant eligibility in terms of registrations,” he says. “Several U.S. plants have scheduled for renewals on March 16, which is unusual to have them not renewed yet.”
Beef variety meets had large growth in both Mexico and Egypt, Halstrom says as another positive.
USMEF reports January beef exports reached 102,840 metric tons (mt), up 3% year-over-year, while value increased 5% to $804.6 million.
Pork exports totaled 243,965 mt in January, down 3% from a year ago, while value eased 2% to $668 million.
“Mexico set records the last two years, actually, and the month of January was our fourth largest export month ever on pork,” Halstrom says. “Central America had a huge month with volume up 22% and value up 30%.”
Exports also increased year-over-year to China/Hong Kong, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand, but these results were offset by sharply lower shipments to Japan, Korea and Colombia, USMEF reports.
“A lot of these record-breaking growth countries have some sort of duty-free access through free trade agreements,” Halstrom says. “You’ve got Mexico and Canada on the USMCA side. You have Korea with their free trade agreement and Columbia-DR. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that these are all markets where we have a preferential access. We do have to protect these longstanding relationships with these key trading partners.”
