Page 11 - Export or Bust eBook

Additional good news arrived in April, when USDA announced that the U.S. will start exporting pork to
Argentina for the first time in more than 25 years - now that the technical requirements have been
completed on a deal first announced last summer by the Trump administration.

USDA estimates that, in the near-term, Argentina will buy about $10 million worth of U.S. pork
annually, but stresses that there are “significant growth opportunities.”

Halstrom ascribes the same demand drivers to expected pork-sales growth in South Korea, Japan,
Australia and other Pacific Rim markets where household incomes are rising and urbanization is
accelerating.

Meanwhile, despite export competition from Brazil, the European Union (EU) and Australia, last year’s
U.S. beef exports were also record, by value, led by market growth in sales to Japan, South Korea,
Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Indonesia. “Almost everywhere was up last year on beef (exports).
We’re pretty upbeat on the beef side,” Halstrom said.

Poultry, like red meats, increases in the diets of consumers whose incomes are rising, and James
Sumner, president of the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council, says chicken meat is on the front line of
that advance. “Our primary markets are in undeveloped and developing countries because our chicken
leg quarters are the lowest-priced meat protein available,” he says.

Poultry meat exporters can sell leg quarters into poor countries at “very favorable prices,” he says, and
that is largely because most Americans prefer the white meat, leaving the legs in surplus domestically.
Thus, the leading foreign markets for chicken are Mexico (by a mile for both chicken leg quarters and
turkey meat) and Cuba. Other big Latin American markets are Haiti, Dominican Republic, Colombia,
Guatemala, and Chile. U.S. chicken also has significant markets in Africa (Congo, Angola, Benin,
Ghana, South Africa) and the Pacific Rim (Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam).

China is a separate matter. Up until 2014, it was a major buyer of chicken, especially chicken feet
(called “paws” in the trade), and a growing market for U.S. turkey. So, some may be surprised that
poultry operators aren’t too concerned about China’s recent moves to slap new 15-25 percent tariffs on
farm products from the U.S.

“There is a reason for that – we don’t have access anyway,” Sumner points out. Though Hong Kong,
officially a separate market from the rest of China, continues as a leading buyer, “for the past three
years, we’ve been banned from exporting any poultry to China because a wild falcon (with avian flu)
was found in Oregon.” (Sumner says world trade rules don’t allow such incidents with wild birds to
justify the kind of import ban that China imposed.)

Since 2014, “Brazil has been doing its best to take our place (selling chicken paws) and has done
pretty well at it,” he said.

A new focus on India

But, along with that market loss, chalk up an imminent win for American poultry. The U.S. challenged
India’s barriers to chicken and turkey imports in a World Trade Organization action and won. Even
though 50-60 percent of Indian consumers are vegetarian, and though India will still impose a 100
percent tariff on chicken meat, 30 percent on whole chickens, and 30 percent on turkey meat, Sumner

www.Agri-Pulse.com 9