U.S. beef exports for the week of Sept. 12-18 totaled 13,400 metric tons (mt), up 1 percent from the previous four-week average. Primary destinations were Japan (3,700 mt, -16 percent), Hong Kong (2,700 mt, +14 percent), South Korea (2,400 mt, +20 percent), Mexico (2,000 mt, -3 percent), Canada (1,100 mt, +6 percent) and Taiwan (600 mt, -8 percent).

Beef net sales were 12,200 mt, down 3 percent from the previous four-week average and mainly reported for Hong Kong (3,200 mt, -22 percent), Korea (3,100 mt, +115 percent), Mexico (2,100 mt, +33 percent), Japan (1,300 mt, -58 percent), Canada (1,000 mt, +6 percent) and Taiwan (560 mt, +4 percent).

U.S. pork exports totaled 15,500 mt, up 2 percent from the previous four-week average. Exports were primarily to Mexico (5,300 mt, -4 percent), Japan (3,300 mt, +15 percent), Korea (1,800 mt, -5 percent), Canada (1,800 mt, +18 percent) and Hong Kong (1,600 mt, +36 percent). Exports for China were 190 mt – the largest since July, but still relatively small following large net sales (3,600 mt) in the previous report.

Pork net sales were 20,400 mt, up 22 percent from the previous four-week average on strong volumes for Mexico (6,300 mt, +2 percent), Japan (5,600 mt, +88 percent) and Hong Kong (3,600 mt, +139 percent). Sales slowed for Korea (2,500 mt, -19 percent) and Canada (1,000 mt, -61 percent, and were just 70 mt for China after large sales in last week’s report.

NOTES:

• Source: USDA/FAS (includes exports and sales of whole muscle cuts).
• Percent change is compared to the previous four-week average, unless otherwise noted.
• Export is defined as an actual shipment from the U.S. to a foreign country.
• Export sale is defined as a transaction entered into between a reporting exporter and a foreign buyer. Sales can be cancelled or adjusted in following weeks, thus “net” sales are reported as the difference between new sales and any cancelations or adjustments.