Ag Policy Blog

The U.S. would have to become the largest buyer of Argentine beef to put a dent in beef prices paid by American consumers.

Make no mistake, the U.S. is already importing a lot of beef -- more than at any time on record -- but Argentina currently accounts for just under 2.2% of total U.S. beef and veal imports.

President Donald Trump has become focused on lowering beef prices for consumers. There have been multiple suggestions over the past few months on how to do that. Early on, it was suggested USDA create some sort of herd retention program. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins had to come out and say there would be no direct payments to cattle producers for heifer retention.

Since last week, Trump has suggested the country would lower beef prices by importing more beef from Argentina.

Aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Associated Press reported, "We would buy some beef from Argentina. If we do that, that will bring our beef prices down."

There is a lot to say about using beef from a country receiving a $20 billion bailout to lower consumer beef prices -- along with prices for cattle producers.

Statistically speaking, though, the numbers just don't bear out the prospect that Argentinian beef will be a driver to lower prices for American consumers.

All of this also comes after the Trump administration had pressed for countries such as England and Japan to open their markets to buy more U.S. beef.

HOW MUCH DOES ARGENTINA EXPORT TO THE U.S.?

Both the U.S. and Argentina would have to make a massive shift in sales, shipping and infrastructure for Argentina to dramatically increase sales to the U.S.

USDA's Economic Research Service puts Argentina's "beef and veal" exports to the U.S. at 98.9 million pounds in 2024.

The Consortium of Argentine Meat Exporters reported earlier this year that the country exported 34,800 metric tons (nearly 77 million pounds) of beef to the U.S. in 2024, up nearly 46% from a year earlier. China, Europe and Isreal are the only three countries that imported more Argentine beef than the U.S., but the U.S. still only accounts for less than 5% of Argentina's total beef exports. Just under 75% of Argentina's beef exports to go to China.

All told, Argentina's total beef exports last year were about 769,000 metric tons, or about 1.7 billion pounds.

US BEEF IMPORTS ARE ALREADY SURGING

The U.S. imported a whooping 4.6 billion pounds of beef and veal last year, up nearly 37% from just two years earlier, according to USDA figures.

Argentina is the eighth-largest exporter of beef and veal to the U.S. Canada and Australia each exported more than 1 billion pounds of product to the U.S. in 2024, followed by Brazil (690 million pounds), Mexico (597 million pounds), New Zealand (559 million pounds), Uruguay (310 million pounds), Nicaragua (155 million pounds) and finally Argentina.

Those eight countries accounted for 97% of all beef shipped to the U.S. last year and also this year.

While imports rose to 4.6 billion pounds, the U.S. also exported 3 billion pounds in 2024. So, the U.S. beef trade actually had a deficit of 1.6 billion pounds last year. In 2022, the U.S. beef trade had a slight trade surplus. The U.S. imported just under 3.4 billion pounds of beef and veal while exporting 3.5 billion pounds.

This year, U.S. beef imports were up 30% through July, topping 3.4 billion pounds in just the first seven months of the year. By comparison, from 2020-2022, U.S. beef imports never topped 3.4 billion annually.

While beef imports have reached new highs, U.S. beef exports through July were 1.6 billion pounds, meaning the U.S. imported almost twice as much beef in the first seven months of 2025 than the country's producers exported.

Brazil was one of the main drivers of the import surge before President Trump placed a 50% tariff on Brazilian products. (As of now, no new data has come out to reflect whether the 50% tariff on Brazil has slowed down beef sales.) Through July, Brazilian packers had already shipped more than 810 million pounds of beef to the U.S. -- about 220 million more pounds of beef than Brazil shipped in all of 2024, which was a record.

LIVE CATTLE IMPORTS DOWN

One factor that could be driving up beef imports is that live cattle imports are down due to New World screwworm restrictions on Mexico. The U.S. imported 1.2 million head from Mexico in both 2023 and 2024, but that number has fallen to 229,000 head in 2025 -- through July. Live cattle imports from Canada are down slightly from a year ago as well.

Also see, "Beef Producers, It's Time to Speak Up," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

Follow him on social platform X @ChrisClaytonDTN

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