CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (RFD News) — The pork industry says it is navigating the conflict involving Iran better than some sectors, particularly when it comes to exports and trade flow.
National Pork Producers Council President Rob Brenneman says fuel costs tied to the conflict are having a much larger impact on day-to-day operations than trade itself.
“The Iranian thing is just mind-blowing. The fuel cost has been tremendous. I don’t feel it’s affected trade any, as far as exports and stuff, but it has affected some of the stuff coming in. Anytime it affects oil, it affects building materials and other things, and so I think from that point it’s had, but it’s had a huge impact on cost when you use as much fuel as a lot, lot of, and on top of it, we’re, you know, we’re doing field work, and, and that adds to the cost of putting the crop in, and adds to the cost of making feed, and delivering feed, and hauling pigs to market, hauling corn to the farm, and the ingredients, it just all adds up.
However, Brenneman says trade has remained stable despite ongoing global uncertainty.
“With all the tariffs and everything that’s been happening, trade still been fairly reasonable. I don’t think we could complain. Mean, it would always be great to have more. It really, I mean, we’ve had decent trade through all the problems, and then consumer demand is great in this country.”
While pork exports to the Middle East have remained relatively steady overall, some individual markets posted declines during March.
Exports to Egypt fell 9 percent compared to a year ago, though export value increased. Pork exports to the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Lebanon and several other Middle East markets also trended lower during the month.
