The United States Meat Exporters Federation (USMEF) reports that 85,066t of US beef was exported in February, a 13% decline compared with the 98,198t exported in the same month last year. It was also down compared with the 92,558t exported in January this year. USMEF refers to the effective closure of China as an export market for US beef as the main cause of the decline, though it also points out that volumes to three other major export markets, Japan, Korea and Canada, were also down – with Mexico the only high-volume market showing an increase.

Markets

Mexico was the largest export market for US beef in February, taking 17,950t, 405t more than in the same month last year. The other increases to note were to Taiwan, where there was an increase in export volumes of over 400t to 4,200t and the Caribbean countries, where the volume increased to 2,788t, an increase of just over 200t. Of interest to Irish farmers will be the increase in export volumes to the EU and UK, which in February reached 1,473t, up from 1,186t in the same month last year.

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For the other main export markets, volumes were down compared with a year ago. In February, Japan was the second largest market, taking 17,131t, which is almost 2,000t less than the 19,087t in February 2025. There was an even greater decline in exports to Korea, at 16,032t compared with 18,540t in the same month last year. China/Hong Kong records the greatest decline of all, with the 7,085t exported in February – less than half the volume exported in the same month last year. The explanation for this has been repeated monthly over the past year. There have been tariff issues, but the main reason has been that the authorities in China have refused to renew import licenses for US beef companies since March last year.

US beef imports increase

While US beef exports have been in decline, the opposite is the case with beef imports. USDA data to 28 March shows that the overall volume imported in the first quarter of 2026 has increased by 15% compared with last year, to 463,885t. Australia is the largest supplier accounting for 113,420t; a 7% increase compared with the same period last year. Brazil is the second largest supplier and have the highest year-on-year growth in volumes, up 46% to 85,208t, and imports from Mexico also increased in the first quarter, up 18% to 64,861t, while volumes from Canada fell by 7% to 66,461t.

Despite the US market for beef imports increasing over recent years, Irish beef has failed to make any impact. In the first quarter of 2026, the US imported just 642t of beef from Ireland, a 42% decline on the 1,110t imported in the same period last year, which was well down on the first quarter of 2024.

Comment – US market remains out of reach for Irish beef

Over the past two years, US beef exports have been in a prolonged period of decline, while there has been a parallel growth in their demand for beef imports. This should have been an opportunity for Irish beef to make its mark in the US market – more than a decade after it was opened with considerable fanfare back in 2015.

For a time, it did show some promise. Back in 2020 Bord Bia data shows that we exported 9,592t of beef to the US, but it has been in decline since then. Canada is now a bigger export market for Irish beef than the US. The reality is that despite being the world’s second largest importer of beef after China, the US beef import market is particularly competitive and it is no surprise that its main suppliers are from the countries where beef cattle prices are much lower than in Ireland or anywhere in Europe.