Pork Exports to Latin American Markets Continue to Shine
You may download the audio file here
After a record performance in 2017, U.S. pork exports to Central America, South America and the Dominican Republic have continued to gain momentum this year.
In the attached audio report, U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) Trade Analyst Jessica Spreitzer notes that even in markets where domestic pork production is on the rise, consumption is increasing at an even faster pace, leading to expanded opportunities for U.S. pork.
Spreitzer said demographic trends are helping drive pork demand in these markets, but she also emphasized the importance of key trade agreements such as the Dominican Republic-Central America-Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) and bilateral agreements with Chile, Colombia, Panama and Peru. These agreements have greatly improved market access for U.S. pork in Latin America and helped fuel strong growth in U.S. market share.
Through April, U.S. pork exports to South America are up 23 percent from a year ago in volume to 39,520 metric tons (mt) and 24 percent in value to $96.7 million. Led by mainstay markets Honduras and Guatemala and sharply higher shipments to Panama, exports to Central America climbed 23 percent in volume (26,459 mt) and 27 percent in value ($63.3 million). In the Dominican Republic, exports totaled 13,612 mt (up 20 percent) valued at $30.8 million (up 22 percent).
If you have questions, please email Joe Schuele or call 303-226-7309.
TRANSCRIPT:
Joe Schuele: After a record performance in 2017, U.S. pork exports to Central America, South America and the Dominican Republic have been very strong again this year. At the recent U.S. Meat Export Federation Spring Conference, Trade Analyst Jessica Spreitzer gave pork producers and exporters an overview of the factors driving this growth. She has more details in this USMEF report:
Jessica Spreitzer: Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras have actually had increasing pork production over the last 10 years. Colombia was up 144 percent in production, but at that same time their total pork consumption was up 198 percent. Looking at Guatemala, production was up 7 percent, but consumption was up 27 percent. And Honduras – their production was up 27 percent, but consumption was up 75 percent. So even though we do have growth in a lot of these markets in their own production, consumption is growing so much faster that this is giving opportunity for the U.S. to fill that gap. The DR is a little different. Their production is down. They're rebounding a little bit right now, but they're still down significantly from where they were ten years ago.
Joe Schuele: Demographic trends are helping driving pork export growth, but Spreitzer also emphasized the benefits of key free trade agreements:
Jessica Spreitzer: Pork is an affordable protein that's desirable for the diets in these markets. Also we have urbanization and income growth trends — in the cities, consumers that are time poor but now have higher incomes and want those convenient, processed-pork products, and looking specifically at Central America, the population has been growing well above the world trend for Guatemala, Honduras and Panama for the last 10 years, and that is expected to continue to grow over the next 10 years as well. And the U.S. has benefitted from preferential duties with its free trade agreements — we have CAFTA-DR and then also free trade agreements with Chile, Colombia, Panama and Peru. These have all been implemented starting in 2004 with Chile. Since that time we have seen a big gain in market share in a lot of these markets.
Joe Schuele: For more information, please visit USMEF.org. For the U.S. Meat Export Federation, I’m Joe Schuele.
###The U.S. Meat Export Federation (www.USMEF.org) is the trade association responsible for developing international markets for the U.S. red meat industry. It is funded by USDA; the beef, pork, lamb, corn and soybean checkoff programs, as well as its members representing nine industry sectors: beef/veal producing & feeding, pork producing & feeding, lamb producing & feeding, packing & processing, purveying & trading, oilseeds producing, feedgrains producing, farm organizations and supply & service organizations.