The numbers are in and the export figures for U.S. beef and pork are looking good. The U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) talked about how well our red meat commodities are doing around the globe at the Cattle Industry Convention & Trade Show in San Antonio, Texas.
Joe Schuele is the Vice President of Communications for the USMEF. He says while beef didn?t quite reach the record-setting numbers of 2018, it remained strong. Beef still did export worth over $8 billion dollars. 2019 just was pork?s year to shine coming in at 2.67 million metric tons exported, valued at just under $7 billion.
Schuele says we were able to pull these numbers down despite some of our trade disadvantages, namely tariffs. China still was importing massive amounts of pork because of African Swine Fever. We also recovered in the second half of 2019 in Mexico and saw growth in our smaller markets. Schuele feels that the removal of some of these trade barriers, we could see even better figures in 2020.
Diverse markets have paid off in 2019. Had we kept all our eggs in one basket, we wouldn?t have seen the successes we did.
Schuele says the United States is the best-equipped supplier to meet the growing protein demand of the global marketplace for the foreseeable future.
