It's official: U.S. meat exports break records

The U.S. Meat Export Federation has the details here. The upshot:

December statistics released by USDA and compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) confirm that 2010 was the best year ever for U.S. beef export value. A final total of $4.08 billion breaks the pre-BSE high from 2003 of $3.86 billion by more than 5 percent and exceeds the 2009 total by nearly $1 billion. Total volume was 1.067 million metric tons, an increase of 19 percent over 2009.

Pork export value posted the second-best year on record at $4.78 billion, falling just 2 percent short of the 2008 high and besting 2009 by more than 10 percent. Total volume was 1.918 million metric tons - an increase of 3 percent over the previous year.

USMEF spokesman Jim Herlihy told me this morning that overseas consumer confidence in American meat has been growing, and the U.S. has been benefiting from some misfortunes facing some of its competitors, including foot and mouth disease in South Korea, drought in China, unfavorable weather in Australia and restrictions on beef exports from Argentina.

For more on this, check CapitalPress.com later this week.