Post

Factors beyond strong dollar limiting U.S. meat exports

The chairman-elect of the U.S. Meat Export Federation says there are factors beyond a strong dollar limiting exports.

Bruce Schmoll, a corn and soybean producer from southeastern Minnesota, attributes some of the challenges to the high value of U.S. currency.

But he tells Brownfield the trickle-down effect of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to play a role.

“For the last year or so with the European Union being cut out of the market in Russia as far as pork and beef go, (the EU) now has a surplus of pork and are looking for a place to unload it.  One of the biggest customers of pork right now is Japan.”

He says the EU has cut into the U.S. share of Japanese meat exports, and there remain issues lingering from last year’s West Coast port strike.

“That’s caused some questions in our customer’s minds about our credibility and reliability of supplying products.  So we’ve lost a little bit of business that way.”

Schmoll says in the last month he’s been encouraged by increased meat exports and is optimistic U.S. prices will become more competitive globally.