Global beef demand is increasing as the world beef supplies tighten, said Brett Stuart, Cattle Fax market analyst, on Feb. 4 to more than 5,000 cattlemen and women during the Cattle Industry Convention in Denver. “2011 will be the fourth consecutive year of global beef production declines,” said Stuart. “This will not correct quickly. We will see very tight supplies moving forward.”

One major contributing factor to increasing demand comes from outside the borders of the U.S. Stuart said business in the international marketplace is growing quickly as improvements to infrastructure and logistics are made. Beef exports are witnessing substantial growth with 75% of all U.S. beef exports going to Mexico, Canada, South Korea, Japan and Vietnam.

“Korea is very aggressively buying beef from the US,” said Stuart, adding that the foot-and-mouth disease issue is causing substantial reductions in South Korea’s domestic meat supplies. “Two weeks ago, we had outstanding sales to Korea at 24,000 tons, which is up from 9,000 tons a year ago,” he added.

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