Exports will be a key driver for cattle and beef markets in 2023. How export demand holds up will be influenced by what happens in currency markets. Beef export data continue to show overall growth, but with a high level of economic uncertainty worldwide, headwinds remain strong.
Data for U.S. beef exports are reported in metric tons of product weight by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Quantities are often converted from metric tons to pounds. These quantity data is also often converted from a product-weight basis to a carcass-weight-equivalent (CWE) basis. Data are converted to a CWE basis to allow “apples-to-apples” comparisons to beef production data, which are reported in CWE. Beef exports accounted for 12.2% of total annual production in 2021. The export share was up slightly in 2022.
USDA’s Economic Research Service…
