International Relations/Trade, Livestock Production/Industries,

Grimes, Glenn

Meyer, Steve R.

Plain, Ronald L.

English

Research Papers in Economics

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
U.S. Pork Imports and Exports 
 
 
 
 
 
Glenn Grimes 
 
Ron Plain 
 
and 
 
Steve Meyer 
 
 
 
 
 
Department of Agricultural Economics Working Paper No. AEWP 2006-03 
 
 
 
 
May 2006 
 
 
 
 
 
The Department of Agricultural Economics is a part of the Division of Applied Social Sciences of the 
College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources at the University of Missouri-Columbia 
200 Mumford Hall, Columbia, MO 65211 USA 
Phone: 573-882-3545 • Fax: 573-882-3958 • http://www.dass.missouri.edu/agecon 
   2
U.S. Pork Imports and Exports 
 
Glenn Grimes,Professor Emeritus, Agricultural Economics,University of Missouri-Columbia 
Ron Plain, Professor, Agricultural Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia 
Steve Meyer, President, Paragon Economics, Des Moines, Iowa 
 
Dept. of Agricultural Economics Working Paper No. AEWP 2006-3 
 
 
The changes in U.S. pork trade in the past 20 years are quite impressive.  U.S. pork 
exports have grown from 86 million pounds carcass weight equivalent in 1986 to 2.66 billion 
pounds in 2005.  Another comparison shows that the U.S. has gone from a negative 1.036 
billion pounds net export in 1986 to a positive 1.636 billion pounds in 2005 (Table 1). 
The value of pork and pork byproduct exports has grown from $1.97 per hog slaughtered 
in 1986 to $25.44 per head slaughtered in 2005 (Table 2). 
These changes in trade have permitted the pork industry to grow at an additional rate of 
about 0.8% per year on average over the last 20 years.  In other words, the U.S. pork industry 
was about 16 million head larger in 2005 than it would have been had pork imports and exports 
remained at 1986 levels.   
Not only has the increase in the quantity of pork traded allowed the industry to grow 
without lowering prices, but it has also added to producers= incomes in the years when net 
exports grew.  Our efforts to calculate the returns to producers by year from 1986 to 2005 are in 
Table 3.  We believe these estimates are conservative because they show that producers= 
incomes increased only in the year when net exports grew.  In other words, we assumed 
producers reacted to higher prices by increasing the U.S. herd enough to offset any price 
benefits from net export growth in the following years.  Some observers do not believe 
producers could react this quickly or increase production enough to completely offset benefits in 
the following years. 
Pork producers can take credit for much of this export growth.  They have improved the 
quality of pork which has made it more competitive and funded promotion efforts.  Efforts by the   3
U.S. government to liberalize trade, as well as improved per capita incomes in many countries 
were also important factors in increasing exports.  Japan is the largest U.S. pork customer, 
purchasing nearly 40% of our exports in 2005.  Mexico is second and Canada is third in 
tonnage purchased from the U.S.  Table 4 shows our most important pork customers by their 
percentage share of U.S. pork exports purchased in 2005 based on carcass weight equivalent. 
Three major groups in the U.S. have contributed to the promotion of pork exports.  They 
are USDA, the U.S. meat packing industry, and hog producers.  No studies have been made, 
that we are aware of, to determine the amount of credit each of these groups should receive for 
increasing the growth in pork exports.  Pork producers alone have spent nearly $55 million in 
the last 20 years to promote exports through Pork Checkoff funds.   
We believe the total income of all U.S. pork producers has been improved by $6.3 billion 
over the last 20 years by the increase in exports (Table 3).  Less than 13% of this would be 
required to repay all of the $775.5 million in Checkoff contributions by producers during this 
period. 
 
This study was funded by the University of Missouri and National Pork Board.   4
Table 1 
U.S. Pork Imports and Exports 
(million pounds) 
 
 
Year 
 
Pork Imports 
 
Pork Exports 
 
Net Pork Exports 
 
1986 
 
1122 
 
86 
 
- 1036  
 
1987 
 
1195 
 
109 
 
- 1086  
 
1988 
 
1137 
 
195 
 
- 942  
 
1989 
 
896 
 
268 
 
- 628  
 
1990 
 
898 
 
243 
 
- 655  
 
1991 
 
775 
 
290 
 
- 485  
 
1992 
 
646 
 
420 
 
- 226  
 
1993 
 
740 
 
446 
 
- 294  
 
1994 
 
744 
 
549 
 
- 195  
 
1995 
 
664 
 
787 
 
123  
 
1996 
 
619 
 
970 
 
351  
 
1997 
 
634 
 
1044 
 
410  
 
1998 
 
705 
 
1230 
 
525  
 
1999 
 
827 
 
1277 
 
451  
 
2000 
 
967 
 
1287 
 
320  
 
2001 
 
951 
 
1559 
 
608  
 
2002 
 
1071 
 
1612 
 
541  
 
2003 
 
1185 
 
1717 
 
532  
 
2004 
 
1099 
 
2181 
 
1082  
 
2005 
 
1024 
 
2660 
 
1636    5
Table 2 
Value of U.S. Pork and Byproduct Exports to the Pork Industry 
per Head of Total U.S. Slaughter 
 
 
Year 
 
Value of Pork 
 
Value of Byproducts 
 
Total 
 
1986 
 
$1.05   
 
$0.92   
 
$1.97   
 
1987 
 
1.59 
 
1.10 
 
2.69 
 
1988 
 
2.84 
 
1.62 
 
4.46 
 
1989 
 
3.72 
 
1.35 
 
5.07 
 
1990 
 
3.84 
 
1.51 
 
5.35 
 
1991 
 
3.79 
 
1.71 
 
5.50 
 
1992 
 
4.76 
 
1.66 
 
6.42 
 
1993 
 
5.20 
 
1.61 
 
6.81 
 
1994 
 
5.73 
 
1.80 
 
7.53 
 
1995 
 
8.79 
 
1.83 
 
10.62 
 
1996 
 
11.02 
 
1.82 
 
12.84 
 
1997 
 
11.36 
 
2.46 
 
13.82 
 
1998 
 
10.17 
 
2.13 
 
12.30 
 
1999 
 
10.86 
 
1.83 
 
12.69 
 
2000 
 
12.34 
 
2.00 
 
14.34 
 
2001 
 
14.17 
 
2.23 
 
16.40 
 
2002 
 
13.42 
 
2.02 
 
15.44 
 
2003 
 
13.80 
 
2.38 
 
16.18 
 
2004 
 
18.15 
 
3.38 
 
21.53 
 
2005 
 
22.01 
 
3.43 
 
25.44   6
Table 3 
Returns to Producers from Decreased Imports 
and Increased Exports of Pork 
 
 
 
Year 
 
Checkoff 
funding 
 
Returns in 
mil.
2
 
Net Import 
or Export
3
 
Return per 
cwt. 
 
Return per 
hog 
     $    $  %        $  $ 
 2005  4,755,263  1,608.7  7.91 net exp.  5.83  15.54
2004  4,365,761  1,654.2  5.27 net exp.  6.05  15.99
2003  4,675,003  - 46.3  2.67 net exp.  - 0.17  - 0.46
2002  4,842,222  - 199.9  2.75 net exp.  - 0.76  - 1.99
2001  5,159,989  810.7  3.18 net exp.  3.18  8.28
2000  5,245,321  - 377.7  1.69 net exp.  - 1.49  - 3.86
1999  4,896,000  - 129.2  2.33 net exp.  - 0.49  - 1.27
1998  5,700,000  114.7  2.76 net exp.  0.45  1.14
1997  4,800,000  136.0  2.37 net exp.  0.58  1.48
1996  2,498,000  363.4  2.05 net exp.  2.45  6.10
1995  1,754,000  597.4  0.69 net exp.  2.49  6.20
1994  1,267,800  200.3  1.11 net imp.  0.84  2.09
1993  1,150,000  - 149.9  1.73 net imp.  - 0.65  - 1.61
1992  1,079,000  545.9  1.31 net imp.  2.35  5.75
1991  996,268  419.5  3.04 net imp.  1.94  4.76
1990  651,595  - 67.9  4.28 net imp.  - 0.33  - 0.80
1989  466,024  368.1  3.98 net imp.  1.72  4.15
1988  280,577  277.5  6.03 net imp.  1.31  3.16
1987  125,834    7.59 net imp.   
 
Total 
 
54,657,668 
 
6,325.5 
 
 
 
avg. 1.40 
 
avg. 3.59
 
 
1 Used -0.5 elasticity 1988-1990 
  Used -0.3 elasticity 1991-1999 
  Used -0.2 elasticity 2000-2005 
 
2 Net import or export as percent of U.S. production. 
 
   7
Table 4 
U.S. Pork Exports by Country in 2005 
Percent Share of Tonnage 
 
 
Country 
 
% of U.S. Exports  
 
Japan 
 
39.3 
 
Mexico 
 
20.2 
 
Canada 
 
11.3 
 
South Korea 
 
7.1 
 
China (mainland) 
 
4.6 
 
Russia 
 
3.5 
 
China (Taiwan) 
 
2.4 
 
Caribbean 
 
1.5 
 
Hong Kong 
 
0.9 
 
Other 
 
9.2 
 

U.S. Pork Imports and Exports

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