Many mission trips were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, but as countries lift travel restrictions, producers and leaders are touting their products around the world.

Pat McGonegle, chief executive officer of the Iowa Pork Producers Association, said one mission trip to Japan and South Korea was postponed, but the group planned to head to Mexico at the end of February.

“Mission trips are so important and require the cooperation of the Iowa Department of Economic Development, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship and the Meat Export Federation,” he said. “All those groups and producers put the platform together. It’s important to have a producer face on the product that we export, too, and have them share what they do on the farm.”

These trips also help more producers understand the marketplace in another country, discover how products move, how they’re further manufactured and distributed. McGonegle noted that supply and demand numbers weren’t too bad through the end of October and even though December is a typically slower month with the holidays, numbers are up a bit.

“Exports to Mexico is up a little bit, over 50 percent from where they were a year ago, and the Philippines were up more than 100 percent,” he said. “It’s not that big of a market, but is growing very nicely. We’ve even seen growth in Central and South America. A bit of dampening news is that exports to China is down 40 percent or so, but you’ll have those ebbs and flows in the marketplace.”

Chad Hart, agriculture economist with Iowa State University in Ames, said supplies are record high and demand is quite strong, which is what’s been fueling relatively strong prices on the livestock side.

“Any time you’ve got $100/cwt, it’s pretty strong,” he said. “We’ve seen pork sales drop off a bit, but China remains our No. 2 pork customer and No. 3 beef customer, so anywhere China moves we’ll feel it directly.”

Rex Hoppes, executive director of the Iowa Beef Industry Council, also said it’s been two years since his group has embarked upon a mission trip. However, several industry groups pooled their efforts and participated in virtual discussions in late 2020 with Japanese merchandisers.

“It was a great hour-long discussion,” Hoppes said. “There were seven or eight merchandisers and we had representation from beef, pork and the other commodity groups. We asked them questions; they asked us questions. With COVID, it’d be easy to lose track so going forward we have a trip planned for this spring to Mexico City and Guadalajara.”

Due to a worker shortage at packing plants, supply has been down slightly, but the total volume of meat or beef and total dollars of beef are up from years past.

“That makes one wonder how far up can things go,” Hoppes said. “Prices are high in our partner countries, too. According to USMEF, we’re going to surpass $10 billion of beef sold in the U.S. in 2021. The U.S. was able to fulfill all of its commitments, although some shipments were delayed a bit and shipping costs grew expensive. It’s great news that customers around the world want U.S. beef. We have a board of directors who facilitate the investment of national and state checkoff dollars and that investment in international promotions is one of our greatest priorities.”