Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays is visiting with the president and CEO of the United States Meat Export Federation, Dan Halstrom about headwinds on beef exports.
Because of high levels of beef exports throughout most of 2022, Halstrom said those numbers were expected to take a hit at some point.
“There are some headwinds out there,” Halstrom said. “We have been talking about those headwinds for quite a long while in the last part of last year. We’ve got that strong U.S. dollar, especially in Asia, especially in Japan, Korea, and a little bit effecting China as well. You still have inflation or impacts on pricing there, possibly slowing down some spending.”
Although exports are down 15 percent from last year, Halstrom said demand is still good and there has been success in a few key countries.
“Mexico had a very large month, up 20 percent,” Halstrom said.
Food service is in full swing in the Caribbean, Halstrom said, they are also up significantly.
“Philippines was up big, and Japan was almost steady with a year ago,” Halstrom said. “To me, that is some pretty good news kind of filtered into the down start of the year. So, I don’t think it is all negative.”
Halstrom also talked about value numbers being down and said it could be related to a number of reasons, but demand has been strong regardless.
Because food service was not in full swing in Asia last year, Halstrom said retail and online carried the load of beef sales.
“I think that is part of the reason that maybe we saw a little bit better news out of Japan versus the rest of Asia,” Halstrom said. “I think the retail business and food service to some extent is starting to come back there, so I think this is something else we need to keep an eye on as we go through the rest of this year.”
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