Beef Exports Increasing

Beef Exports Increasing. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

Since the European Union created a duty free quota for imports of high quality beef, U.S. exports have grown faster than expected. The U.S. Meat Export Federation director, John Brook explains.

BROOK: The export figures to the European Union are well ahead of where we thought we would be at this time. We anticipated that the United States might be shipping between 12 and 14-thousand tons of beef meat and it is now clear from the statistics that we’re much closer to 16 and a half thousand tons which really puts us almost 1-year in front of where we thought we were going to be.
Brook says he find this encouraging.
BROOK: Because the consumption of beef meat in the European Union is not fantastic at the moment and there is no question that the sort of medium quality is suffering quite badly but it’s very, very encouraging to see that despite the rising prices that this sector is still growing and growing well.
Brook says the filling of the quota is good news in terms of current trade activity that creates an urgency for negotiating an expanded quota.
BROOK: The GTC quota of 20-thousand tons as it has been more or less fully subscribed to from the United States plus some beef from Australia and a little bit from Canada will effectively put a ceiling on further growth in the near future and now the main objective is of course to get that quota increased to 45-thousand tons.
He notes that additional exports of high-quality beef to Europe are possible outside of the duty-free quota, but very difficult to achieve in the current economic climate.
BROOK: There is of course still the old Hilton quota available which has to pay a 20% customs duty but today with the high prices we have seen in the market it would seem to be ambitious for importers to plan to use that quota.
That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.