Strong U.S. red meat exports; beef sets new value mark

January 8, 2014

Driven by sustained export growth to Japan and Hong Kong and the continued rebound of the Mexican market, U.S. beef exports surged 11 percent in volume and 16 percent in value compared to November 2012, putting 11-month totals at nearly 1.1 million metric tons (mt), up 3 percent from a year ago. Export value reached $5.61 billion, an 11 percent increase over last year’s pace and already ahead of the 2012 year-end total of $5.51 billion.

“Market access … product availability … relationships. There are many factors that play a role in the export marketplace,” said USMEF President and CEO Philip Seng. “We continue to see benefits from expanded market access for beef in Japan and Hong Kong. At the same time, the lack of access for U.S. beef to Mainland China and the closure of the Russian market for both pork and beef – which is approaching a year in duration – are significant barriers.”

Drought has had widespread ramifications, leading to smaller cattle numbers in the U.S. and a contrasting surge in Australia’s 2013 production, also leading to record exports of Australian beef.

November beef exports
U.S. beef exports in November reached 101,341 mt, an 11 percent hike over last year, while the value rose 16 percent to $524.5 million. Exports accounted for 14.3 percent of total U.S. beef production (muscle cuts plus variety meat) and 11 percent of muscle cuts alone compared to 12 and 9 percent, respectively, in November 2012.

The export value per head of fed slaughter in November jumped to $267.36, an increase of $51.41 over last year. The top-performing beef export markets in November were:

Japan: 17,135 mt (up 74 percent) valued at $101.2 million (up 41 percent). Japan is the top volume and value market for U.S. beef exports, totaling 219,081 mt (up 52 percent) valued at $1.3 billion (up 34 percent) for the year.
Mexico: 20,114 mt (up more than 62 percent) valued at $82.9 million (up more than 50 percent). Mexico is the No. 2 volume market for U.S. beef for the year, totaling 191,984 mt (up 8 percent) valued at $819.9 million (up 8 percent).
Hong Kong: 15,185 mt (up 112 percent) valued at $98.1 million (up 163 percent).
ASEAN: 3,080 mt (up 22 percent) valued at $14.1 million (up 20 percent), led by a recovery of exports to Indonesia.

Complete export results are available on the USMEF statistics webpage.

—From U.S. Meat Export Federation news release

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