May pork exports posted “phenomenal” gains with an increase of 98.2% above a year earlier, according to a recent Hog Outlook report from Glenn Grimes, University of Missouri professor emeritus.

Grimes says pork exports in May accounted for $43.62/head slaughtered, up from $25.06/head slaughtered in May 2007. Pork by-product exports in May were valued at $6.23/head slaughtered vs. $3.57/head slaughtered in May a year ago.

In total, pork exports in May were worth $49.85/hog slaughtered in 2008, up from $28.62 a year ago.

For January-May, 2008, the value of pork exports for each U.S. hog slaughtered was $33.51, compared to $24.73/hog slaughtered in 2007 for the same period.

The value of pork variety meat exports for January-May amounted to $4.80/hog slaughtered, compared to $3.42/head slaughtered last year, says Grimes.

In total, for January-May, 2008, pork exports were worth $38.31 from each hog slaughtered. This is a 36% increase from the $28.51/hog slaughtered in the first five months of 2007, he adds.

During January-May, U.S. pork exports were up 16.2% to Japan, up 19% to Mexico, up 25% to Canada, up 13.5% to South Korea, up 145% to Russia and up 401% to China and Hong Kong. Exports were down 5.8% to Taiwan and up 4.4% to Australia.

Net pork exports represented 16.96% of production for January-May, 2008. This compares with net exports for January-May, 2007 of 9.56%.