While affected by the backlog of shipments in the West Coast ports, February exports of U.S. beef, pork and lamb bounced back to some degree from the totals posted in January, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) last week.

"We didn’t see much relief from the shipping backlog until March, and container traffic in some ports still has not returned to normal," said USMEF President and CEO Philip Seng. "However, the new labor contract agreement definitely sent positive signals to our Asian buyers and allowed the U.S. meat industry to begin the process of putting this crisis behind us."

Beef’s February rebound

February beef exports...