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U.S. beef exports increase, diversify early in year
Story Date: 3/2/2012
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Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 3/1/12
Although major buyers reduced spending in the first two months of the year, U.S. beef export volume rose 7 percent, according to the CME Group’s Daily Livestock Report published today.
Overall U.S. exports of beef muscle cuts Jan. 2 to Feb. 16 totaled 99,800 metric tons, an increase of 6,244 metric tons over the same period last year, according to livestock analysts Steve Meyer and Len Steiner.
“The increase in exports came despite lower shipments to S. Korea, Mexico and Japan and is evidence that diversification in beef exports should sustain growth in 2012 and beyond,” they wrote in the report.
Russia and Egypt, which the analysts called “two somewhat unusual destinations for U.S. beef,” were the leading buyers in the first seven weeks of the year. Typically those countries largely rely on Brazilian supplies, but a weak U.S. dollar is making U.S. beef prices more competitive.
Meyer and Steiner don’t put too much stock into South Korea’s dip, because the year-to-year comparison is skewed; February – March 2011 shipments spiked in response to that country’s FMD outbreak.
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