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Japan leads US Pork exports
The US pork industry is celebrating a 17th consecutive
record year for exports, and Japan is the early favourite for Most Valuable
Partner (MVP) in trade, according to statistics released by the US Meat Export
Federation (USMEF).
5.2 percent jump
Through the first eight months of 2008, the United
States has exported more than 3 billion pounds of pork and pork variety meat
valued at more than $3.2 billion. For those keeping score, that's a 5.2 percent
jump in volume and a 1.8 percent increase in value of total pork exports
compared to the entire 2007 calendar year, and a 71 percent hike in volume and
64 percent in value when compared to the first eight months of
2007.
Leading the way is Japan, the perennial all-star of pork importers.
In 2008, Japan has imported more US pork muscle cuts (which account for 86
percent of the value of all US pork exports) than any other nation, totalling
$967 million.
Importance of
Japanese market
“You can't overestimate the importance of the Japanese
market to the US pork industry,” said Philip Seng, USMEF president and CEO. “It
accounts for 34.9 percent of the value of all US pork muscle cut exports and
30.9 percent of the value of total pork exports, and the opportunity there
continues to grow as Japan's agricultural self-sufficiency continues to
decline.”
In the coming weeks, USMEF-Japan will unveil a promotional
campaign extolling the fact that Japanese consumers have made US pork the No. 1
imported pork in Japan. The US share of Japan's pork imports stands at 44
percent, compared to 37 percent last year, making the United States the dominant
supplier. Canada is a distant second with 19 percent.
Related
Website
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USMEF
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