American beef exports plateaued last year in 2016, after the industry experienced several steady years of increase in the foreign marketplace. Here in 2017, it seems the export market is back on track and doing surprisingly well. Jim Robb of the Livestock Marketing Information Center spoke recently with Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays about the numbers coming in from the first two months of 1Q.
“USDA put out their February numbers which followed the trend of January where we posted strong year-over-year increases in beef exports,” Robb reported, noting that exports by tonnage were up by 20 percent. “The peak of beef exports tends to be in the summer months but we’ve posted strong gains and also our imports fell year-over-year for the first two months of the calendar year by 17 percent.”
This is a significant pivot from what we saw last year, says Robb, adding that the effects of this have spread into the pricing profile - which explains some of the dynamics felt in the markets over the last several months. Contributing to this too are signals in the markets that reflect both international demand and our attractive prices right now.
“The year-over-year gain is mostly in tonnage, so this is a tonnage game,” Robb remarked. “We’ve has a lot of positive developments. We are certainly much more competitive than we were a year ago, competing in markets.”
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