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Worldwide meat consumption and trade have been steadily rising for decades, driven on the demand side by rising incomes and expanding populations and on the supply side by ample feed supplies, improved production technology, changing industry structure, and advances in transportation, packaging, and other technologies. The expanding U.S. meat trade reflects all of these trends. This discussion looks at how trade has grown and compares trends across commodities. Details related to trade in specific livestock and meat products can be found in the Cattle, Hogs, Poultry, and Sheep briefing rooms.
Livestock and Meat Trade Data contains monthly and annual data for imports and exports of live cattle, hogs, sheep, and goats, as well as beef and veal, pork, lamb and mutton, chicken meat, turkey meat, and eggs. The tables report physical quantities, not dollar values or unit prices. Data on beef and veal, pork, and lamb and mutton are on a carcass-weight-equivalent basis. Breakdowns by country are included.
The Growing Importance of International Meat Trade
The success of the U.S. meat industry in world markets can be illustrated first by measuring how much world meat markets have expanded over the last 40 years and second, by how much the U.S. presence in these markets has increased.
World trade in broiler meat increased from near zero in the early 1960s to over over 7 million metric tons by the late 2000s. After stalling in the early 1980s, world trade in broiler meat accelerated sharply toward the end of the 1980s and surpassed trade in pork in 1992. World trade in beef and pork has also increased, but at slower rates.
Cost-reducing technical and organizational innovations, such as vertical integration, have allowed broad marketing of relatively inexpensive poultry products to low- and medium-income countries that cannot afford higher priced beef and pork. The U.S. broiler industry increased its share in international markets from almost 15 percent in the 1970s to nearly 50 percent in 1999. Since then, however, the U.S. industry has lost some market share to Brazil. Since the mid-1980s, the U.S. pork sector has increased its export market share, reaching more than 25 percent of world trade in the mid-2000s. U.S. beef’s share of world trade slipped drastically following the discovery in December 2003 of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a dairy cow imported from Canada. U.S. beef has begun to regain market share, although is still well below its pre-BSE levels.
The Role of Trade in U.S. Meat Markets
U.S. meat exports began to accelerate in the mid-1980s, and U.S. meat producers have become major players in rapidly expanding world meat markets. The U.S. poultry industry has been the most dynamic U.S. meat sector, with dramatic increases in both exports and domestic consumption. Exports of broiler meat, in volume terms, increased about tenfold from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s. Starting from about the same level, beef exports increased about fivefold during the same period, but this growth was interrupted in 2004 by problems related to BSE (see Cattle:
Trade for more information). Beef exports have begun to recover since then. Pork exports grew more slowly during most of this period, but surpassed beef exports after the BSE interruption.
Another indication of the growing importance of export markets for all three
U.S. meat sectors is the export share of domestic production. The broiler industry
markets around 15 percent of its production internationally, and the growth
in pork exports over the past 10 years has raised pork's export share almost
to that of broilers. Beef exports had reached nearly 10 percent of domestic
production before dropping after the discovery of BSE.
In terms of export value, beef was for many years the top U.S. meat export
because it is, by far, the highest priced meat. The value of beef exports hit
a record $3.2 billion in 2003 before dropping in response to the discovery
of BSE. The value of beef exports has generally exceeded the value of pork
and broiler meat exports as technical and organizational changes—feeding patterns,
animal genetics, and industry structure, for example—have exerted downward
pressure on the prices of these meats relative to beef. Pork, in turn, is relatively
higher priced than broiler meat. Its total export value has surpassed that
of broilers as the quantity of pork exports has grown.
The United States is the world’s largest importer of beef and is among the top four importers of pork. U.S. beef production is geared toward producing grain-fed, high-value cuts, while U.S. beef imports are primarily grass-fed, lower value beef destined for processing, primarily as ground beef. U.S. pork imports are also comprised of particular cuts such as ribs, which U.S. production cannot completely supply. The United States imports only small amounts of broiler products, accounting for less than 1 percent of domestic production.
For More Information, See...
USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) provides data on current U.S. trade; data on supply and demand (including imports and exports) for major trading partners; current world market and trade reports (and attaché reports); and information on international agricultural trade and agricultural policies of foreign countries.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is a group of 30 member countries that shares a commitment to democratic government and a market economy. OECD work on agriculture includes agricultural policies, trade liberalization, and agriculture and the environment.
World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. The website includes information about the organization and its membership and provides access to official WTO documents.
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