Sort & Cull

If net pork export sales last week had been a fireworks display, the explosive light show would have sent the top pyrotechnicians at Disney World, Las Vegas, and the Washington Mall back to the drawing board. In short, foreign demand for U.S. pork proved to be extraordinary.

New biz through the final full week to June totaled 38,979 MT, up 90% from the previous week, 91% greater than the prior 4-week average, and a marketing-year high. No sad box of snakes or sputtering fountain, this thundering round of business essentially represents the largest ground-shaker since USDA began reporting weekly data in the spring of 2013.

For the same period, actual pork shipments also soared like an atomic roman candle: 38,843 MT, up noticeably from the previous week, 90% from the prior 4-week average, and also a marketing-year high.

Of course, isolated bits of data like this always beg a larger, more important question. After the last mortar fires and the smell of sulfur dissipate, will pork export demand still be alive and well?

Time will tell. But at the very least, these exciting totals fit with other reasons to believe that the second quarter trade balance will eventually be confirmed to be far more constructive than the sagging surplus (i.e., net exports) of the first quarter when pork shipments lagged behind Jan-Mar 2014 by as much as 8%.

In fact, we may have turned a major corner in April (i.e., the last monthly data available; May numbers will be available next Wednesday, July 8) when pork exports totaled 483.4 million pounds (carcass weight), 11% greater than 2014 and the best monthly display of foreign demand since October 2012.

(CZ)