According to numbers released this week by the U.S. Department of Commerce, exports of U.S. pork in 2021 are on pace to top 2020’s record $7.7 billion.
From January through November, the U.S. pork industry shipped more than $7.5 billion of product to foreign destinations compared with slightly over $7 billion for the same period in 2020.
The top five markets for U.S. pork last year – in order, China, Japan, Mexico, Canada and South Korea – were unchanged from 2020. Helping boost last year’s numbers, the Philippines imported 92 percent more U.S. pork in 2021 than in 2020. NPPC worked throughout 2021 for better market access to that Pacific island nation. It also got better access to Vietnam, which this July 1 will cut its tariff on imported frozen pork.
There also were significant increases in pork exports to the six countries of the DR-CAFTA, a mid-2000s trade agreement NPPC championed. (Free trade agreements backed by NPPC have led to steady annual increases in pork exports over the past 20 years.)
For 2022, NPPC will continue advocating for new and expanded markets for pork producers, pressing the Biden administration to join the 11-nation Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership; get China to remove its retaliatory tariffs on U.S. pork; renew Trade Promotion Authority, which defines objectives and priorities for trade agreements and requires Congress to approve FTAs without changes; make the Philippines and Vietnam tariff reductions permanent; address the country’s aging shipping ports and the ongoing labor shortage; and keep the United States free of African swine fever, which would negatively affect U.S. pork exports.
Source: National Pork Producers Council
