Animal Production NAICS 112

Jun 23, 2025 - US-China Trade War Hurts Niche Exports

• Lucrative niche markets for breeding pigs and other US livestock genetic material including cattle semen have dried up since President Trump started a trade war with China, Reuters reports. Valued between $2,500-$5,000 each, breeding pigs are a small but profitable market for US exporters. However, retaliatory tariffs levied by China in response to US import tariffs resulted in some pigs being sent to slaughter for less than $200 a piece, per Reuters. US farmers and exporters said the trade dispute between Washington and Beijing has cost them millions of dollars and jeopardized hard-won trade relationships, with China turning to Denmark for breeding pigs. China was also the biggest importer of semen from US dairy cows. However, “Not one unit of semen is going to China right now,” Jay Weiker, president of the National Association of Animal Breeders, told Reuters in May.
• The US agricultural trade deficit is widening, driven by shifting global trade dynamics and rising import demand, the American Farm Bureau reports citing data from the USDA’s May 2025 Outlook for US Agricultural Trade. From January through April, the US imported $78.2 billion in agricultural products while exporting just $58.5 billion. The $19.7 billion deficit is the largest ever recorded for the first four months of a year and signals that the 2025 deficit could surpass previous records. By comparison, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s forecast for fiscal year 2025 exports of livestock, dairy, and poultry is expected to post a $7.9 billion trade surplus with exports projected at $38.8 billion for the year versus imports of $30.9 billion.

• While US pork producers see President Trump's tariffs as a negative for their industry, US beef producers are taking a rosier view, Drovers reported in March. That’s because the beef industry is not nearly as reliant on exports as the pork sector. US pork producers export well over a quarter of their product annually, with Mexico, Japan, China, and Canada their top export markets. As such, retaliatory tariffs from any of these top export customers are a huge concern. In March, China imposed 10% retaliatory tariffs on US pork, on top of the previous 25% duties. While China and the European Union have placed the same level of tariffs on US beef exports, the beef industry is not as export dependent. Indeed, tariffs on beef and cattle imports to the US have a net effect of tightening supplies, which drives up prices for US ranchers, according to Drovers.
• Poultry farmers and egg producers are on opposite sides of the debate over bird flu vaccinations, The Wall Street Journal reported in February. Egg companies are petitioning regulators to greenlight a vaccine that could be administered on farms to protect hens against the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, which is decimating egg-laying flocks and sending egg prices soaring, per WSJ. Poultry processors say vaccinating chickens would have a devastating impact on US poultry exports because countries that import chicken products would cut off purchases of US poultry. The Trump administration is considering changes to bird flu policy, including the current practice of culling entire flocks once the virus is detected. The failure to control bird flu has caused egg producers to change their position on vaccination, which they opposed during the previous outbreak on the grounds that it would be expensive and difficult to vaccinate more than 300 million hens.