Pork exports in 2016 reached record record levels, while pork and beef exports overall finished the year strong.
The U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) says beef and pork exports finished the year with strong December results.
Pork export, volume reached a record 2.31 million metric tons in 2016, up eight percent year-over-year, and two percent above the previous high in 2012.
Export value increased seven percent from a year ago, to $5.94 billion. December pork exports totaled 222,000-some million metric tons, up 18% year-over-year, valued at $564.2 million, up 20 percent.
Beef exports, increased 11 percent in volume to 1.19 million metric tons and one percent in value to $6.34 billion from 2015.
December exports totaled more than 116,000 million metric tons, up 24% year-over-year.
This was the largest monthly volume since July 2013 and the largest ever for December. Export value was $619.1 million in December, up 22%.
Overall, exports accounted for 25.8% of total U.S. pork production and 13.7% of total U.SA. beef production in 2016.
