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Another strong month for livestock exports

US beef and pork exports had another strong month in May, but a livestock market analyst says beef exports could be starting to taper off.

University of Missouri’s Scott Brown says the USDA’s monthly trade data had May beef exports up just over 3 percent on the year.

He says it is the lowest increase since June of 2016.  “A little bit of slowdown occurring in terms of beef exports,” he says.  “Japan was a critical market for us – up 6 million pounds when you look at May of this year compared to May of a year ago.”

Brown says as pork production and processing capacity in the US are increasing, strong export demand is needed.  “May 2017 pork exports are at 515-million-pounds,” he says.  “That’s more than 12 percent above a year ago on the pork export side.  Mexico, South Korea, Japan – countries very important to that growth over that period of time.”

He tells Brownfield if growth in production outpaces export demand, it could mean a sudden drop in prices.  “Growth in beef production has really been exceeding the growth in beef exports when you look at numbers from the first of this year,” he says.  “Yet when you look at the pork side the growth we have been seeing in monthly pork production relative to a year ago seems to be very close to the growth that we’re seeing in pork exports.”

AUDIO: Scott Brown, University of Missouri