An Iowa State economist says that the U.S. export meat market is expanding, in part because of a university program.

“The issue is that the U.S. meat export market has surged, and it will continue to do so based on individual countries’ projections,” said Dermot Hayes, economist with ISU’s Meat Export Center. “The market for U.S. meat products are constantly changing.”

The Meat Export Research Center (MERC), a multi-disciplined program that brings faculty from different departments together, is helping to expand the export meat market, said Dennis Olson, director of the Utilization Center for Agriculture Products. MERC, one of the center’s four divisions, is an 11-year-old program.

MERC conducts studies on other countries, such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Mexico and the former Soviet Union. The studies are turned into marketing manuals.

The center operates on a $1 million budget, $45,000 of which is allocated to MERC, but the organization will solicit funds from other groups to finance larger market projects.

A variety of professors working for MERC include meat scientists, microbiologists, economists, sociologists, food scientists, political scientists, marketers and transportation and logistics officials. The faculty number varies by projects.

Hayes said the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the North American Free Trade Agreement helped spark the export expansion.

Olson said the meat market expansion can also be attributed to a change in export philosophy.

More than 10 years ago, the United States did not have a concerted effort for meat exports, he said.

“The philosophy was if we have excess products, then we found exports, which is different than finding out what countries demand and providing that,” Olson said.

MERC recently studied Mexico for the past 2 1/2 years to help further that goal.

“It appears to us that value market expanding for meat products won’t further expand until [the] value of peso returns,” Olson said. “We anticipate it will be several years.”

Currently, MERC is between projects and will determine its next project by October.

One possibility is a study of the Chinese market, the most rapidly growing economy in the world. However, China’s political stability is still questionable, and new leadership is apt to change public policy, Olson said.

Vietnam is another potential study area because the United States has recently established diplomatic ties with the Southeast Asian country and its economy is starting to grow.