07/12/06 Packing plant approval

Packing Plant Approval U.S. meat industry organizations have a concern foreign countries might be able to pick and choose beef packing plants that can be exporters. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be back in one minute with some discussion about that. The American Meat Institute is worried visits from foreign countries, mainly Japan and Korea, to U.S. beef packing plants could cause a problem. The problem AMI sees is that foreign countries might only accept beef from certain packing plants. The AMI feels only the USDA should have the authority to list or de-list packing plants for exporting beef. Meat industry organizations believe the visits should be mainly for building confidence in potential traders and importers as to how comprehensive the U.S. meat inspection system is. One beef producer I talked to said the customer is the customer and should be able to choose who they want to buy beef from. One other aspect brought out by an industry leader is that the U.S. plants these foreign traders have a problem with are the ones that handle imported beef along with American beef and don't identify and keep the imported beef separate. Well, there it is again, that word, identification. It looks to me like the U.S. is going to have to identify our beef some wayeither Country of Origin Labeling, individual animal ID, or possibly both just to shut down the political excuses other countries use not to buy our beef. I'm Jeff Keane. Western Livestock Reporter 6/21/06