07/25/05 Beef and the E.U.

American Rancher July 25, 2005 Beef consumption in Europe has returned to the levels it was before the BSE crisis there. And Richard Fritz, vice-president of the U.S. Meat Export Federation, says Europe used to be a net exporter of beef but this year they will probably import 500-thousand tons of beef mainly from Brazil and Argentina. Fritz: "Projections are that that import could go to 750-thousand tons in the future making the E.U.-25 the single largest beef importer in the world. So question now is what do we have to do to provide that hormone free, or growth promotant free product into the E.U? And certainly they need to make some changes in their import regime and we, if we want to take advantage of this market, need to produce animals without growth promotants." Fritz says the U.S. beef industry will be doing a study of the European beef market this summer. Fritz: "We are going to be doing internal studies throughout this summer. We hope to work with our colleagues at AMI and NCBA and make a joint determination on whether we should pursue the European market in greater detail." The European Union imposed a ban in 1988 on beef produced with growth hormones and U.S. beef has pretty much been shut out of the European Union since then despite a victory on the issue at the WTO. I'm Bob Hoff.