Page 10 - Export or Bust eBook

Exporters are also aiming American soymeal at aquaculture in those regions, said Jim Sutter, chief
executive of the U.S. Soybean Export Council. “Aquaculture is the most rapidly growing consumer
protein (industry),” Sutter said. “There is more farmed fish raised worldwide than there is beef
production.”
The biggest target, he said, is China, “the single largest aquaculture producer ... (with) about half
the aquaculture in the world.” Already, 15-20 percent of China’s soybean imports are used as
soymeal in fish farms, he said.
Protein sells
To a large extent, U.S. agricultural exports are a story of producing protein for the rest of the world. For
more than two decades, the U.S. pork, beef and poultry industries have been expanding exports rapidly
so that 11 percent of U.S.-produced beef is now sold abroad, as is 16 percent of chicken meat, 10
percent of turkey, 19 percent of dairy products, and 22 percent of pork.

In fact, the share for pork is 27 percent if internal organ and other “variety meats” are included, says
Dan Halstrom, president of the U.S. Meat Export Federation.
“From a supply and demand standpoint and the way it shapes up, the U.S. is positioned very
well,” Halstrom says. American farmers and ranchers are “increasing production and ... are set
up to expand going forward.”
Mexico and Canada continue as leading customers for U.S. pork and beef, accounting for around a third
of red meat exports every year, and Mexico has long been the biggest importer of U.S. pork by far.
U.S. pork export tonnage was a record in 2017, Halstrom notes, and he expects continued regular growth
because incomes are rising worldwide, coaxing up per capita consumption. That’s why he expects slow,
steady sales growth to Colombia, Peru, Chile, Panama and other Latin American markets “as their
spending power increases.”
8 www.Agri-Pulse.com