U.S. beef and pork wholesale prices soften; exports to Korea reach 3,640 t of beef and 3,440 t of pork in mid-October

Weekly USDA market data show the Choice beef cutout (the combined wholesale value of the primals) averaged $3.69 per pound in the last week of October, down $0.02 from the week before. That is 3% below the same week last year but 15% above 2024. Select averaged $3.55. By primal, rib ($6.76, +7% year on year) and chuck ($3.29, +6%) were higher than a year ago, while round, loin, brisket, short plate and flank were lower.

Supply remains tight. Weekly cattle slaughter was 543,000 head, 2.5% fewer than a year earlier, and year-to-date slaughter is down 6.6%, with beef production down 4.4%. The cash price for fed cattle was $223.95 per hundredweight.

Pork is clearly weaker. The pork cutout peaked for the year at $1.04 in the fourth week of July and has now fallen for 14 straight weeks to $0.72, 28% below last year. Seasonal growth in fourth-quarter slaughter (2,608,000 head a week) and production (561.7 million pounds, the most since January) is behind the drop, and every primal, including belly, loin and ham, fell over the week. Live hog prices also dropped 10.5% in one week to $60.29 per hundredweight.

Korea took a large share of exports. Of the 12,900 t of U.S. beef exported from October 16 to 22, 3,640 t went to Korea, bringing beef exports to Korea for January 1 to October 22 to 166,580 t. Pork exports that week were 37,640 t, the highest since April, and shipments to Korea were also the largest since April at 3,440 t. The prices above are U.S. domestic wholesale primal prices and differ from export prices.

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Source: USDA AMS and FAS weekly data, compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (2026.11.4) https://www.usmef.co.kr