Mike Pearson takes a look at the latest report out from the U.S. Meat Export Federation and the good news it has for pork producers.

American pork is very popular across the globe right now. Exports are up 14 percent overall.

Mexico exports $180 million in meat since the beginning of the year. Variety meats which are cuts of meat that are usually not popular with Americans are up 50 percent.

Taiwan has also increased exports there. The report showed the exports of pork to Taiwan are up 531 percent year over year.

And while exports are less than what they were in 2020, China is still exporting a lot of pork. In fact, the report shows 24 percent more in 2023 than in 2022.

Overall, pork exports added $66.31 in value to hogs and exports accounted for 31 percent of all sales.

However, beef exports were not as good. This was due to tight domestic supplies in beef. The exports were down 10 percent from 2022. This presented a challenging first half of 2023 to beef producers. The one good thing was that variety meat exports were strong.

When it came to lambs, exports were down 56 percent from 22. Exports did add 6.5 million in value to the lamb industry.

Farm Progress America is a daily look at key issues in agriculture. It is produced and presented by Mike Pearson, a farm broadcaster and host of This Week in Agribusiness.