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Market material: U.S. pork producers see record-breaking exports

Feb 13, 2018

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National Pork Board invests in export activities for continued growth

By Kaitlynn Anderson

Staff Reporter

Farms.com

American pork producers may be pleased to know that the country exported a record amount of pork last year.

Producers provided 5.399 billion pounds of pork and pork variety meat to over 100 countries in 2017, according to Wednesday’s Pork Checkoff release.

The exports, valued at $6.486 billion, “continue to be an important piece of the puzzle for adding to producers’ bottom line,” Craig Morris, vice president of international marketing for the Pork Checkoff, said in the release.

And the National Pork Board recognizes the important role that exports play in the industry. The organization approved a nearly $8.7-million investment for export activities in 2018, the release stated.

“The National Pork Board’s investment at this level will ensure that all of the needed market promotion, development, and research is conducted to keep domestic producer share of returns from exports maximized to their fullest potential during this critical time,” Morris told Farms.com yesterday.

In 2017, some of the country’s top pork export markets included Mexico, China/Hong Kong, Japan, Canada, South Korea and South America.

In fact, “China and Mexico accounted for 86 percent of U.S. pork variety meat exports,” the release stated.

Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Eric van Heugten, PhD, professor and swine extension specialist at North Carolina State University, recently spoke at the Iowa Swine Day Pre-Conference Symposium, titled Soybean Meal 360°: Expanding our horizons through discoveries and field-proven feeding strategies for improving pork production. The event was sponsored by Iowa State University and U.S. Soy.

Soybean meal offers pig producers a high-value proposition. It’s a high-quality protein source, providing essential and non-essential amino acids to the pig that are highly digestible and palatable. Studies now show that soybean meal provides higher net energy than current National Research Council (NRC) requirements. Plus, soybean meal offers health benefits such as isoflavones and antioxidants as well as benefits with respiratory diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

One of several ingredients that compete with the inclusion of soybean meal in pig diets is dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS).

“With DDGS, we typically see more variable responses because of the quality differences depending on which plant it comes from,” said Dr. van Heugten. “At very high levels, we often see a reduction in performance especially with feed intake which can have negative consequences on pig performance, especially in the summer months when feed intake is already low and gaining weight is at a premium to get them to market.”

Over the last few decades, the industry has also seen the increased inclusion of crystalline amino acids in pig diets.

“We started with lysine at about 3 lbs. per ton in the diet, and then we added methionine and threonine to go to 6 to 8 lbs. per ton,” he said. “Now we have tryptophan, isoleucine and valine and can go to 12 to 15 lbs. per ton. All of these, when price competitive, are formulated into the diet and are displacing soybean meal which also removes the potential health benefits that soybean meal provides.”