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Economist says growing exports will be key to cattle markets

US beef exports have started the year in recovery mode and an ag economist says strong exports will be crucial to cattle markets in the coming months. 

Oklahoma State University’s Derrell Peel says Japan remains the top market for US beef, but South Korea is taking a run at the top spot.  “There’s been a month or two in the last couple of months where US beef exports to South Korea have actually exceeded exports to Japan,” he says.  “So that’s a growing market.”

He tells Brownfield China remains the biggest opportunity for US beef.  “It’s China/Hong Kong together,” he says.  “I put those two pieces of data together because China is growing, and Hong Kong is decreasing a little bit.  The net effect is that market is growing, and we expect it to grow.  And it has tremendous potential.”

Currently China/Hong Kong is the number 3 market for US beef and Peel says they could move higher in the next couple of years.

Peel says he has a more bullish price outlook for the last quarter of the year.