U.S. Beef Remains Strong in Middle East

U.S. Beef Remains Strong in Middle East, but Loss of Saudi Arabia Costly

How has all of the social and political unrest in the Middle East affected U.S. Ag exports? After the break we’ll visit with a U.S. Meat Export Federation representative to learn more, I’m KayDee Gilkey with Open Range after this.

Dan Halstrom, USMEF senior vice president for global marketing and communications, was recently in the Middle East visiting with buyers and traders of U.S. beef.

Through July, beef exports to the region are down slightly in volume but are still 8 percent ahead of last year’s record pace in terms of value at $202 million. Halstrom says that social and political unrest in the Middle East has done very little to slow demand for U.S. Beef.

Dan Halstrom: “The unrest from a humanitarian standpoint is unfortunate. But, the reality is that their desire for higher level, more sophisticated levels of protein continue to increase, and that’s where U.S. Beef, high quality, grain fed beef comes in.”

He said the region would be preforming even better this year if not for lack of access to Saudi Arabia, which was the only foreign market to have closed to U.S. beef as a result of the April BSE case.

Halstrom: “Saudi was a very good market and we’re starting to lose some of that share now because we’re several months without access and some of our global competitors are starting to get some of that business. So, I know it’s high on our radar for our industry, to regain access into Saudi; it’s high on USDA’s radar as well in Washington. We’ve been working with them and hopefully they can make some breakthroughs with their counterparts on the Saudi side.”

I’m KayDee Gilkey with Open Range on the Ag Information Network.