Agreement to Further Open Japan's Market to U.S. Beef

Agreement to Further Open Japan’s Market to U.S. Beef

I’m KayDee Gilkey with today’s Open Range.

Exciting news for U.S. Beef producers as of this Friday, Feb. 1st, Japan will begin accepting beef and beef products from cattle under 30 months of age. These new terms and conditions expand the market access for cattle under 20 months to cattle under 30 months. It is estimated that this change in protocol will result in hundreds of millions of dollars in additional exports of U.S. Beef.

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association President J.D. Alexander says that expanding markets for U.S. beef has been a really important issue.

Alexander: “We’ve been working on this for nearly 10 years now. This is something that we looking forward to, and building towards and hoping that we would see advancement in this way. The market we’ve been forced with drought situations --some just not real good news in our industry, so it is a great opportunity for us to supply a product to that we really have great input into Japan and can increase even more. Looking to fulfill the market and expand it where ever we can in that aspect.”

Alexander says that only 10 percent of U.S. beef is exported but through November 2012, Japan was the second largest export market for U.S. beef totaling $849 million and nearly 130,000 metric tons.