(Radio Iowa) – The volume of U.S. pork exports is down about 9% compared to this time a year ago and it’s not just trade tensions with China that caused the drop. “While China’s a major market that is significantly down, we’re fewer sales into Mexico, South Korea, Japan, Canada, Australia,” said Iowa State University agricultural economist Chad Hart. “We’re seeing losses sort of across the board.”

It’s happening at a time when American’s pork industry needs to sell as much pork as possible, according to Hart. “Pork production has continued to hedge higher and higher over the past few years, meaning that we have plenty of pork to work with here,” Hart said, “and while the domestic market has been very good for the pork industry, we need international growth as well in order to help balance out the pork market.”

Iowa State University agricultural economist Chad Hart (ISU photo)

Hart indicated the U.S. is facing export competition from countries, but worries about the global economy. “When people are worried about their incomes worldwide, what they tend to do is slow their consumption down,” Hart said, “and I think we’re definitely seeing that when it comes to our pork market.”

In 2024, the United States told 3 million metric tons of pork, followed by the European Union, which sold 2.9 million metric tons of pork products. Brazil is the world’s third leading exporter of pork.