USDA Raises Beef Export Forecast

For the meat trade picture, USDA's March WASDE report raised it's beef export forecast by 30 million pounds to 3.3 billion pounds.

"That really just reflects observed data," said World Ag Outlook Board Chairman Mark Jekanowski. "So, updating the data based on the latest numbers from January and we saw a little bit of a bump in exports to China."

Jekanowski said export forecasts were lowered for other meat types.

"Generally speaking, high prices in the U.S. are reducing some of that export demand, especially in pork and broilers.  For turkey we reduced our export forecast by 85 million pounds."

He added the lower turkey forecast largely reflects reduced exports to Mexico.

​"And a large part of that reflects the discovery of HPAI in Indiana, which is a pretty important turkey producer, so Mexico cut off exports from that state in particular."

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