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Beef export value tops pre-BSE levels

2010 beef exports from the U.S. set a new value record of $4.08 billion, breaking the pre-BSE record of $3.86 billion in 2003. It also topped the 2009 total by nearly $1 billion. Pork exports recorded the second-highest volume and value results ever, 4.28 billion pounds valued at $4.78 billion. That’s exceeded only by the record pork export totals of 2008.

Dan Halstrom, Senior Vice President of the U.S. Meat Export Federation, says beef exports set new value records in many regions of the globe. However key to the new export record are exports to Japan and South Korea, according ot Halstrom. Those are two high-value markets in which the U.S. is striving to get beef sales back to pre-BSE levels.

“Japan, we continue to see growth there, both on a tonnage basis, up 36 percent year-on-year, and the same on a value basis,” said Halstrom, in an interview provided by the USMEF. “Korea, phenomenal growth almost doubling the volume from 2009 and 140 percent of the previous year in the Korean value, so we have some really good success stories.”

Halstrom says Japan is the pacesetter for U.S. pork exports, setting a new value record of $1.65 billion. Mexico imported just under a $1 billion worth of U.S. pork.