The Importance of Beef Exports

Last week’s WSU Beef Production Conference was a very valuable event with many great speakers who shared really good information. Did you know that the U.S. produces only 9 percent of the world’s beef cattle and yet provides 20 percent of the global supply of beef? That just one of the many interesting points that Cattle Fax CEO Randy Blach shared during his presentation. Blach explains the importance of beef exports on U.S. ranchers’ bottom line.
Blach: “Exports are key. Having access to ship products to other parts of the world. For example, most of us don’t sit down and have a bowl of tripe here in the U.S.. You look at different parts of the world put different value on things than we do as U.S. consumers — we like steaks and hamburgers here. Other consumers like a lot of the variety meats. The organ meats those kind of things that we don’t put as high value on. Tongue would be a wonderful example — if we look at the value of a tongue in the United States versus the value of a tongue in a country like China. So by having access to consumers around the world the markets are really able to derive what true value is. This last year, exports added $308 a head to the value to every steer and heifer produced in the United States. That’s a big number.”
He added that for 2014 that value attached to exports for beef cattle is $355 per head year-to-date.