Washington - The 50-million-pound increase in the 1998 US pork export estimate can be attributed to better-than-expected sales to Canada, Mexico and Russia, a US Agriculture Department analyst said.
USDA in its monthly supply and demand report forecast 1998 US pork exports at 1.125 billion lbs, up from 1.075 billion lbs estimated in May.
The USDA analyst said the department now has final figures for first quarter pork exports, which was “better than we anticipated.”
Exports to Canada, Mexico and Russia offset a slip in sales to Japan, the top export market for US pork. In the first quarter, 40 % of US pork exports went to Japan, down from 52 % in all of 1997.
The analyst said USDA expects US pork exports will slide a bit in the second quarter after the first, a forecast that is included into the June data.
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