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Growth in pork and beef exports benefits corn and soybean growers

The president and CEO of the U.S. Meat Export Federation says beef and pork exports continue to bring significant returns to corn and soybean farmers. 

Dan Halstrom was in Indiana this week to provide an update on red meat exports to leaders from Indiana Soybean Alliance, Indiana Corn Marketing Council, and other state ag groups.

“There is a lot of collaboration between Indiana agriculture and USMEF globally. We’re interested in meat exports and the largest customers of Indiana soybeans and corn is the livestock industry so we gave an update on where we’re at globally on the trendline,” he says. “On the beef side, we had a record in 2022. There was broad-based growth across a lot of markets, including places like China, Southeast Asia, and Korea. On the pork side, we were down a little bit last year mainly because of China, but 2022 was still the third largest export year ever. Leading the way has been Latin America led by Mexico, Korea, and Southeast Asia on the pork side. We’re off to a very good start for pork for 2023. Through the first two months we’re up about 8-9 percent and things are looking good going forward as well on the pork export front.”

Central Indiana Farmer Mark Legan, an Indiana Soybean Alliance board director, raises hogs, corn, and soybeans and says red meat export growth is critical to his operation.

“We raise pigs. In trying to move the entire carcass of the pigs, variety meats have added over $10 per head for every pig marketed in the U.S. and those are predominantly exported,” he says. “On the grain side of our operation, meat exports bring a lot of value to Indiana grain farmers. If we didn’t have those exports it would mean less money to Indiana grain farmers and we would have a considerably smaller livestock footprint here in the state and U.S. as well.” 

Halstrom says the Indiana corn and soybean groups have been a long-time partner of USMEF.

Audio: Dan Halstrom, president and CEO of the U.S. Meat Export Federation, and Mark Legan, Indiana farmer and Indiana Soybean Alliance board director

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