Numbers released last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) showed that 2017 was a record-breaking year for U.S. red meat exports. Beef export value exceeded $7 billion for only the second time, and pork exports surpassed the previous year’s volume record, according to the data.

Beef export value reached $7.27 billion, up 15 percent year-over-year and 2 percent above the previous high achieved in 2014 ($7.13 billion). Beef exports volumes totaled 1.26 mil­lion metric tons, up 6 percent from 2016. This...