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Domestic demand leveling, but exports gaining momentum

A livestock market analyst says domestic demand for US meat products could be leveling off and that could lead to price concerns for US livestock producers.

Scott Brown is with the University of Missouri.  “We certainly started the year with pretty good strength,” he says.  “I worry that we’re losing a little bit of the wind out of the sails of domestic demands for meat in this country.  I think we all know if that continues to unfold what happens on the price side – it gets a lot harder.”

He tells Brownfield global exports are still key – and weekly export data shows demand for US beef and pork continues to grow.  “Mexico is important to that,” he says.  “Japan, South Korea.  All of those markets have been up as we look at the first couple of months of data.”

But, Brown says part of the reason for the significant year-over-year increases was the low levels of demand in early 2016.   “As we continue to move through 2017 we may have trouble seeing that same kind of growth,” he says.  “As you recall – we got some nice recovery in terms of export expansions as we move through 2016.  So it will make it harder as we go through this year to continue those double digit growths.”

USDA’s monthly trade report comes out this week.

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