Working On Meat Exports

Working On Meat Exports. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

The world export market is extremely important to U.S. ag producers. The markets for meat products like beef, pork and chicken are constantly changing. U.S. Meat Export Federation President and CEO Philip Seng has just returned from the Greater China region, where he examined current market conditions for beef and pork. Taiwan has recently adopted a maximum residue level (MRL) for ractopamine residues in both imported and domestic beef.

SENG: I was in Taiwan just after the MRL was announced for ractopamine. The enthusiasm by the trade there to procure out product was amazing as far as the beef side is concerned and I’m really impressed with how rapid it’s been as far as the major retailers, the major food service establishments, high end hotels, the chilled campaigns all this is coming back in a very, very fast fashion so I think that says a lot about the framework and the base that has been set in Taiwan as far as the safety of our product and even though we’ve had some storms we’ve done very, very well.

Chilled campaign refers to meat that has never been frozen and demands a higher price usually from high end hotels and restaurants. Seng notes that economic growth has slowed somewhat from the torrid pace China had seen in recent years. But this shouldn’t cool the U.S. meat industry’s interest in the market, because China still offers tremendous opportunities.

SENG: They’re opening up a new Kentucky Fried Chicken every 13 hours in China, McDonalds is opening up every 36 hours in China so as you know we don’t have access to beef with China and obviously this is something that’s of paramount importance because that’s still a market even though the numbers are sounding slow at 8% growth it’s still a very dynamic market and we need to be part of that growth henceforth. One of the things on this trip that we tried to underscore when we met with officials there is that we actually need more transparency in that market so we can see and understand better when China’s going to need more pork because when China goes into the market to buy pork it affects the world price. But it’s huge. They consume half the worlds pork but I did notice something on this trip that a lot of the pork we are exporting is not just going into the strategic reserve, it’s actually going out into commerce as it comes into the market and that’s very, very encouraging so there’s change that’s going on there. Again it’s not as fast as we’d like but the opportunity in China is pretty comprehensive when you take a look at it.

Seng also says regaining market access for U.S. beef in China is an urgent trade priority. That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.