Despite domestic and international challenges brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak, U.S. pork exports are on track to beat last year’s record export value by 15% or more.

As of Aug. 30, U.S. pork exports were valued at $5.12 billion, up 18% from the sales value at the same time in 2019. Similarly, total volume reached about 4.4 billion pounds, a 17% bump from Aug. 30, 2019.

Most of this growth is powered by much bigger purchases from China, which lost an...