At a recent meeting held in Baltimore, the United Soybean Board set priorities for the upcoming year. A soybean, corn and pork producer from Indiana, Jim Douglas, sits on both the United Soybean Board and the U.S. Meat Export Federation executive committee. He spoke at the USB meeting about the importance of their investment in exports through USMEF and other similar organizations, as reported by USMEF.
“Animal agriculture consumes about 60-70% of U.S. soybeans,” he said. “And so it’s vitally important that we support that industry, and vitally important that U.S. poultry and all farmers remain profitable. Our export market needs to grow. You know, in the U.S., we depend on the export markets, and we need to grow them.”
USB support helps the U.S. pork industry take advantage of opportunities to grow global market share, Douglas added.
“I think that just shows you that we realize the value of exports,” Douglas said. “It’s a necessity that we maintain those markets, we’d like to grow those markets. You know, the European Union is in a situation where they’re cutting back on their exports. There’s room for the U.S. to step in and pick those up”
Douglas admitted growing competition from South America with Brazil increasing their hog herd.
“We’ve got competition, but at the same time, we’ve got tremendous opportunity to step in and take some of those markets that the EU was providing for.
The sustainability message of U.S. soy growers is a key marketing component of U.S. pork around the globe, the USMEF release said.
“The U.S. label on these meat products is important,” Douglas explained.” And it comes with a sustainable label and I think people pay attention to that. And I think they respect the product of the USA very well.”
