United States-Poultry exports.

UNITED STATES-POULTRY EXPORTS.

U.S. meat and poultry exports were, in many observers’ eyes, surprisingly strong in February. U.S. beef exports were 11.1% higher than last year with South Korea being the big contributor to growth, increasing by 8,862%.

That percentage increase, of course, was from a number very near zero one year ago but the shipment volume of 28.2 million pounds was a major reason for year-on-year growth. The other major contributor to beef export growth was Vietnam , which nearly doubled its year-to-date imports through February to become the fourth largest destination for U.S. beef.

Shipments to Japan grew slightly from last year’s levels as shipments to Mexico and Canada stand 15% and 18% smaller than last year, respectively.

One reason for that decline, of course, is cattle imports from both of these countries have been driven lower by mandatory country of origin labeling, leaving more cattle available for domestic packers in Mexico and Canada , thus increasing domestic production and supplanting U.S. exports.

The value of U.S. beef exports through February stands 10.8% higher than last year with South Korea and Vietnam accounting for nearly all of the growth in this item as well. The value of shipments to Canada is down 23.4% YTD. U.S. pork exports were 9.7% smaller in February versus one year ago. That brought YTD pork exports down to 7.1% lower than last year (see Figure 2) with China/Hong Kong (-68%) and Russia (-51%) the primary reasons for the reduction. Shipments to Mexico amounted to 44.04 million pounds product weight, 54% higher than in 2008, and drove YTD exports to Mexico to +60.3%. That in spite of a sharply devalued peso.

YTD shipments to Japan are also up — 16.6% — while Australia and Taiwan saw small unit gains. On the value side, U.S. shipments through February have actually increased by 0.7% with Japan (+33.5%) and Mexico (+59.6%) leading the way.

Exports to Canada are down in both volume (10.5%) and value (11.4%) this year, in part due to higher Canadian pork production from MCOOL-reduced Canadian market hog imports.

The huge success story for pork in February was variety meats — up 54.3% in volume and 52.5% in value through February (Figures 3 and 4). While China/Hong Kong has been a disappointment on the meat side, they have been a boon on the by-product side, taking 32% more product and paying 47% more dollars for it thus far in 2009.

Mexico remains our largest pork variety meat market and has exhibited remarkable growth again this year. U.S. chicken exports declined 7.7% from January to 560.8 million pounds, ready-to-cook (RTC) weight. February shipments were still 10.6% higher than last year and brought year-to-date chicken exports to 1.169 billion pounds, 21.4% higher than in 2008. Recall that U.S. chicken exports set a record last year. It appears that this "most-affordable" of meat muscle proteins is performing well in an even more price-sensitive market in 2009.