Livestock and Meat International Trade Data

The Livestock and Meat International Trade Data product includes monthly and annual data for imports and exports of live cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, beef and veal, pork, lamb and mutton, chicken meat, turkey meat, eggs and egg products. This product does not include any Dairy Data. Using official trade statistics reported by the U.S. Census, this data product provides data aggregated by commodity and converted to the same units used in the USDA’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE). These units are carcass-weight-equivalent (CWE) pounds for meat products and dozen equivalents for eggs and egg products. Live animal numbers are not converted. With breakdowns by partner country and historical data back to 1989, these data can be used to analyze trends in livestock, meat and poultry shipments alongside domestic production data and WASDE estimates. Timely analysis and discussion can be found in the monthly Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook report.

The data are provided in two formats. Sixteen formatted Excel tables provide data grouped by commodity and broken down by partner country. The tables covering all meat and livestock trade contain only recent data, while commodity-specific tables include data back to 1989. In addition to the Excel tables, a ZIP file contains two comma separated values (CSV) files: one with export data and one with import data. These files include all of the same monthly data as the excel tables, as well as disaggregated, unconverted data. These files are machine readable, providing a convenient format for R users and other programmers.

The file “Year-to-date imports under the World Trade Organization” is a table covering beef imports from countries with whom the United States has tariff rate quota agreements. It provides the cumulative imports in metric tons and calculates the share of each country’s yearly quota which is filled. The data source for this table is the Commodity Status Report from U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Note: In December 2024, a machine-readable version of the file “Year-to-date imports under the World Trade Organization” was added to this page. The machine-readable version will be published, along with the monthly updates of this data, beginning in January.

Note: Due to website updates, the Livestock and Meat International trade data will be released on January 10, 2025, at 12:00 p.m. ET. This is 3 business days after the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, publishes its January report on U.S. international trade in goods and services.