The U.S. Department of Agriculture surprised meat producers and traders on Thursday by reporting a spike in the nation’s export sales, fueling questions over the accuracy of the data. The beef export sales, reported in weekly USDA data, included deals that may have taken place months ago, contributing to the sudden increase, the agency told Reuters.
US Beef Exports
U.S. beef exports have declined since 2022 due to high prices and scarce inventories, and an increase could further raise costs for domestic consumers already facing higher grocery bills during the summer grilling season. Beef prices broke records this year due to strong demand and a persistent drought that drove U.S. ranchers to slash their cattle herds.
USDA said in its report that net export sales of U.S. beef for delivery in 2026 reached 126,062 metric tons in the week ended June 25, a marketing-year high that was up almost 500% from a week earlier. The figure may include several months of data, the agency later said in an email.
Traders said the totals still looked excessive. “None of those numbers make a lot of sense,” said Matt Wiegand, commodity broker for FuturesOne. Altin Kalo, head economist at Steiner Consulting Group, said he thought the data was mistakenly entered into USDA’s reporting system in kilograms instead of metric tons, causing sales to look bigger than they were.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
