Agribusiness Update for Wednesday 06/18/14

A delegation from China's food safety agency is coming to the U.S. to review American beef production. U.S. Meat Export Federation's Phil Seng says they hope this is the time something positive will happen and China will remove its ban of imports of U.S. beef - established in December 2003 after the first U.S. case of BSE. The Chinese delegation will have to develop a report on its findings after its two-week U.S. tour - but Seng believes the reopening will happen in the near future. It's expected that China would begin with a staggered protocol to allow imports of bone-in and boneless beef from U.S. cattle age 30-months or younger.

At the end of last week - Connecticut Representative Rosa DeLauro requested a briefing with Acting Under Secretary for Food Safety Brian Ronholm on the recalled beef out of Fruitland American Meat potentially contaminated with BSE. USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service says none of the animals displayed signs of BSE before slaughter. DeLauro questions why it took so long for the error to be discovered - as the recalled product was produced between September of 2013 and April of this year.

That's today's Agribusiness Update from the Ag Information Network.