'Amazing' times for pork

SPRINGFIELD – Last year was amazing for the pork industry with several records broken and international marketing will play a big role in getting the industry through 2018.

“We are again forecasting an increase in exports,” Craig Morris, vice president of international marketing with the National Pork Board, explained.

Since 2010, U.S. pork exports have increased 35 percent and domestic pork consumption increased 11 percent since 1989. This translates to a 1,550 percent increase in value for U.S. pork exports. The top six markets by volume include: Mexico, China, Japan, Canada, South Korea and South America.

“We’ve obviously had strong growth in our top six markets,” Morris said.

Morris believes the industry must have a strategy to promote the product differently for different markets. The U.S. is the number two exporter in the world behind only the entire European Union. All commodities are forecasting increased production in the U.S. this year.

Morris was a speaker at last week’s Illinois Pork Expo in Springfield.