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Pork Board president: As production grows, exports are key

With U.S. pork production at record levels and continuing to grow, it’s critical that pork demand keeps growing as well.

So says Terry O’Neel, president of the National Pork Board.

“To be honest with you, most of it is going to have to come from exports,” O’Neel says. “We want to maintain the domestic market and perhaps grow it, but that’s a very difficult situation with all the protein sources. Chicken and beef are doing the same thing, they are increasing.”

O’Neel says it’s vitally important that trade disruptions be avoided.

“I’m referring to NAFTA, I’m referring to KORUS—anything that would disrupt trade, which includes a foreign animal disease,” he says. “If we have a foreign animal disease, it is going to cut across all species, including beef, and it would disrupt our exports. So anything that disrupts trade is not good for the protein sector in the United States.”

O’Neel is a pork producer from Friend, Nebraska.  We visited with him a recent Husker Tailgate event in Lincoln, Nebraska.

AUDIO: Terry O’Neel