When you step back and take big picture look at the beef and pork exports right now, first quarter turn out pretty good says Jim Robb Director of the Livestock Marketing Information Center.
"I think overall for the first quarter of this year, we were pleasantly surprised on total red meat exports," Robb said. "Both beef and pork were
up substantially for the first quarter and we have record high beef prices, so that's the good news."
"On the beef front, we had for the month of March, exports up over five percent from year ago levels, with very strong exports to two key countries, Mexico and South Korea, Robb said. "Some softness some other markets, but those are two markets that we really do watch closely and are two of top four marketplaces."
"On the pork side, we had a huge surge in exports up 22 percent from a year ago," Robb said. "We have remember on the pork front that most of those orders were made prior to the huge runup in the pork cutout value, the wholesale market, due to the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea, but still on balance on surprisingly good export demand across the red meats for the first quarter of 2014."
With the tight supplies for beef and pork, that pushes prices higher, expecially for international buyers, Robb is optimistic this trend will continue in 2014.
"Beef exports have been rather heathy, the value of beef exports is still setting records for most months, but the tonnage at these high prices, we would maybe expect a little bit slippage on the tonnage front compared to a year ago as we get into the summer months, just depending on what our wholesale beef prices are," Robb said.
"So in fact a little bit of slippage might be less than normal given the record high beef prices as a economist looks at this export demand, Robb said. "I think demand will hold up overall, but to maintain strong year over year increases in the beef export market could be difficult this summer with our very tight supplies and record high beef prices."
Click here to see more...