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Increased pork exports support higher pricesBy Jennifer Bremer Exports of pork have increased by 41 percent since the first of the year, which has helped keep pork prices up while input costs increase. National Pork Producers Council President Bryan Black said export markets have been the savior for pork prices during 2008. "In February, one of every five hogs is exported," he said during a news conference at the World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa recently. "We continue to work on trade agreements with South Korea, Columbia and Panama. The largest importers of U.S. pork continue to be China, Russia, Canada and Singapore." In 1989, $394 million worth of U.S. pork was sold to international markets. In 2007, that mark had grown to $3.1 billion in sales. "A lot of our trade growth has been due to free trade agreements with other countries," said Black. "The DOHA rounds will be important for us to be able to get more market access." Nick Giordano, vice president and counsel international trade policy with the NPPC, said that, while exports are up, it is also important to keep international markets open and growing. "We need to gain market access to countries with a growing need for meat." The growing need for meat around the world is due to higher incomes worldwide and people being more willing to buy meat when they have more money. "We have the safest production in the world of high quality pork with the lowest cost of production," he said. Black said exports could be even higher, but there continues to be a problem with the supply of containers to internationally ship the meat. Giordano said when more markets open up for trade, such as South Korea, there will be even more of a problem with a container shortage. In the long-term, however, South Korea will be the biggest deal for U.S. meat and pork exports. "Exports will continue to be brisk, which will help those producers who are dealing with high input costs," he said. "As bad as it is here, we are still the low cost producers in the world," said Black. "In the EU, non-GMO corn costs $9 per bushel, so we can't complain too much." Jennifer Bremer can be reached by phone at 515-833-2120 or by e-mail at jbremermaj@hotmail.com. 7/14/08 Date: 7/10/08 Advertisement
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