The latest USA beef trade data for November shows continued improvement in beef exports. November beef exports were 260.7 million pounds, up 2.7 percent over exports in November, 2016. Beef exports have increased compared with the previous year each month in 2017 for the first 11 months of the year. For the year-to-date, beef exports are up 13 percent compared with one year ago.
Beef exports to the five major destinations have all increased for the year-to-date. Exports to Japan are up 27.6 percent year over year. Japan is the largest U.S. beef export market and accounts for 29.5 percent of total exports for the year-to-date. Second largest is South Korea, up 6.1 percent through November and representing 16.6 percent of total exports.