In response to the coronavirus, governments around the world increased trade barriers and made policy pledges for greater self-sufficiency. Typically, livestock products are the easiest to block since they are more biologically active, containing or attracting a broader number of organisms that compromise their importation upon inspection. Rabobank characterized animal protein trade in 2020 as full of uncertainties. There may have been uncertainties but there were also false impressions. While the expansion in beef and chicken trade slowed in 2020 from a year earlier, pork exports more than doubled thanks to China. Instead of shrinking, the overall increase in meat and poultry trade for 2020 exceeded the previous year’s rate of growth...

TAGS – Livestock, North America, Macroeconomics