US beef industry moves on from shipping ‘crisis’
13/04/2015
However, the tentative agreement that eased tensions was not reached until February 20, so this still had an impact on February meat exports.
“We didn’t see much relief from the shipping backlog until March, and container traffic in some ports still has not returned to normal,” said USMEF President and CEO Philip Seng. “However, the new labour contract agreement definitely sent positive signals to our Asian buyers and allowed the US meat industry to begin the process of putting this crisis behind us. The momentum exports regained in February is encouraging, and we’re looking forward to further improvement when March results are published.”
Beef exports totalled 82,991 metric tons – down 3% year-over-year but a 4% improvement over January. Export value of $535.3 million was up 12% from a year ago and 6% higher than in January.
Export value per head of fed slaughter was $318.26 in February (up 15% from a year ago) and $293.47 for January-February (up 12%).
Share this story:
