Record year for US pork exports in volume, value

Riding an all-time high, US pork exports eclipsed previous records in both volume and value in 2024, according to data released by US Department of Agriculture and compiled by the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF). Meanwhile, beef value rose by 5% compared to 2023, despite a slight decrease in volume, as unit export values reached a record high. Lamb saw improvements in volume and value compared to a year ago.

December pork exports totaled 267,132 tonnes, slightly down from last year’s large volume, but value increased 1% to $771.8 million. With these results, US pork exports closed out the year with a total of 3.03 million tonnes, up 4% from 2023 and surpassing the record of 2.98 million tonnes achieved in 2020. Value likewise topped last year’s previous record by 6%, totaling $8.63 billion.

“Market diversification has been a key goal of the US pork industry for many years, and the resulting broad-based growth has never been more evident than in 2024,” said Dan Halstrom, USMEF president and chief executive officer. “While exports to Mexico were record-large for the fourth consecutive year, US pork’s footprint expanded greatly in the Western Hemisphere and made gains in the Asia-Pacific, which bolstered global export totals and pushed export value per head slaughtered to a new high of more than $66.”

Pork exports achieved annual volume and value records in Mexico, Central America, Colombia, New Zealand, Malaysia and several Caribbean markets. Value records were reached in South Korea, Australia and the Dominican Republic.

On the beef side, December exports totaled 110,171 tonnes, a 1.5% increase year-over-year. Value jumped 4% to $897.6 million — the highest since July. For the full year, beef exports were down from 2023 by 0.5%, totaling 1.29 million tonnes, while value increased 5% to $10.45 billion.