Halstrom Reports to Export Growth Committee at Cattle Industry Convention

The Beef Checkoff Program’s Export Growth Committee met Friday, Feb. 2 at the Cattle Industry Convention in Phoenix. This committee helps establish industry priorities for international marketing and provides direction to checkoff contractors, including the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF), in order to build global demand and increase the value of beef exports.

USMEF President and CEO Dan Halstrom gave the committee a summary of the very strong U.S. beef export results achieved in 2017, which included a new export value record of $7.27 billion. Export value per head of fed slaughter exceeded $286, up 9 percent from the 2016 average, with much of this growth driven by top markets Japan, South Korea, Mexico and Hong Kong.

Halstrom also cited some of the factors supporting an upward trend in beef trade, including steady expansion of global protein demand, solid economic growth, increasing U.S. beef production and the recent strengthening of key currencies versus the U.S. dollar.

TRANSCRIPT:

Joe Schuele: The Beef Checkoff Program’s Export Committee met Friday at the cattle industry convention in Phoenix. In this U.S. Meat Export Federation report, USMEF President and CEO Dan Halstrom reports to the committee on strong U.S. beef export results over the past year.

Dan Halstrom: So 2017, our data is only through November, but we’ve got a pretty good idea what December is looking like. Tonnage up 7 percent, led by Japan, largest value and volume market. Pretty certain we’re going to have a new value record, somewhere between $7.2 and $7.3 billion. So, what does it really add to you as producers? On a fed cattle basis, $282 per head. Of course, it’s no surprise led by Japan, $75 per head, Korea $47, Mexico $38, etc. Now to just give you one example, when is the last time any of you had beef lips? Beef lips are worth over $2 per pound today, and virtually all of them are exported to Mexico. So, $2 per pound versus rendered value of $4 per head. This is an example of putting the right cuts in the right market to match up with the cultural demand.

Joe Schuele: While beef exports do face some challenges, Halstrom says there are also some strong tailwinds working in the industry’s favor.

Dan Halstrom: Increased production is an opportunity for us to expand our footprint globally, so this is our focus to try to move some of this incremental production. Global economic growth – the world is growing at a pretty good clip, over 3 percent estimated for 2018, pretty broad-based growth around the world. The other thing that has kind of flipped, is the last four or five years you had a strong U.S. dollar, and the last six month we’ve seen that start to shift a bit. A little weaker dollar is giving us a little bit of help competitively in some of these markets. But the real driver is global consumption of protein, especially of beef. It’s growing around the world, slow but steady, and especially in some of the larger markets in Asia – an opportunity for us in the U.S. beef industry.

Joe Schuele: For more information, please visit USMEF.org. For the U.S. Meat Export Federation, I’m Joe Schuele.