USDA recently released US beef and pork export data for the month of November.
According to analysis from the US Meat Export Federation, US beef exports posted one of the best months on record in November. USMEF President and CEO Dan Halstrom says November beef exports were the largest in more than a year at 115,337 metric tons, valued at $707.5 million.
?November beef exports showed China was strong again and Taiwan was strong again,? Halstrom said. ?The real encouraging thing is that for the first time in quite a while, we saw Latin America show up really strong. Mexico was up 23 percent. Mexico?s key was the end cuts such as the chuck rolls and rounds. That?s a big market for those two items, and then of course variety meats to some extent as well. We also saw Central America fairly strong as well.?
It was also another strong month for U.S. pork exports ? which already set new full-year volume and value records, even with December results still to be added. Halstrom says November pork export volume was 258,801 metric tons, valued at $697.5 million, with Mexico also among the top-performing markets.
?This established a record already for the year,? Halstrom said. ?While a lot of this was driven by China, there was a lot of broad-based growth across the world. The further rebound in Latin America ? Mexico and Central America ? continues. We saw 65,000 tons into Mexico, a growth of 13 percent. This just mirrors what we?ve seen the last couple of months. It?s really encouraging to see pork rebounding in Mexico the way it has been.?
Halstrom was also encouraged by a rebound in pork exports to South America, where shipments to Chile far exceeded last year and exports to Colombia were the largest since being impacted by COVID-19. USMEF’s detailed summary of January-November red meat exports, including market-specific highlights, is available online.
