home → articles → Marketing | Email to a Friend

Beef Exports Predicted To Rise

published: June 9th 2010
by: Jeff Wilson
source: Bloomberg News Service

 U.S. beef exports will rise 10 percent this year, said Wesley Batista, the chief executive officer of JBS Swift & Co., the U.S. unit of the world’s largest beef producer.

“JBS beef exports will increase 30 percent and the U.S. industry will export 10 percent” more beef this year than last year, Batista said today at an agricultural symposium in Kansas City sponsored by the Federal Reserve. “We are seeing an improvement in demand in emerging economies.”

U.S. cattle prices that jumped to a 19-month high in May have eroded demand, Batista said. Futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange have dropped 8.4 percent in the past month.

“Prices went up a lot and everybody slowed buying,” Batista said. “We will see prices stabilize, and buying will return.”

Sao Paulo-based JBS SA, the world’s biggest beef producer, controls more than 10 percent of global beef processing, after about 30 acquisitions in the past 15 years.