South Korean potato production is expected to increase 14% year on year for 2018 to 530,000t, as farmers respond to high prices this season. Bad weather conditions in 2017 saw South Korea’s potato harvest plunge 16% below 465,000t, which has resulted in higher prices this season.

Argentinian cattle slaughterings for the first six months of 2018 totalled just under 6.38m head. This is the highest rate of slaughterings since 2009, when a severe drought forced farmers to cull cattle numbers and resulted in 20% of the national herd being slaughtered.

US beef exports for the month of May stood at just under 118,000t, which is the sixth highest volume of beef on record exported by US beef companies in a single month. Buoyed by a weak US dollar, US beef exports saw especially strong demand from Japan and South Korea.

Russia is almost 95% self-sufficient in pork production, as domestic production continues to increase. Russian pork imports from January to April totalled just 20,000t, which is only a quarter of what was imported last year and less than 10% of what pork imports were in 2013.