07/31/06 USMEF ready to rebuild demand in Japan

American Rancher July 31, 2006 Even with some strict product limitations - Japan's resumption of U.S. beef imports is great news for America's beef industry. U.S. Meat Export Federation President and CEO Phil Seng says USMEF is ready to begin rebuilding the market. Seng: "We will be announcing to the Japanese a lot of the activities we will be doing. Our activities are going to focus on the trade. We have already worked with over 20 different companies as far as them coming to the United States with some of their customers and doing plant visitations and visiting the industry. There is also going to be a campaign we are going to inaugurate called "We Care." In other words, we care about the consumers, we care about safety, we care about our customers. It is really going to have a lot of impact in Japan and I know the trade and focus groups we have looked at, they have been very positive about this as well." Seng acknowledges there will be some stiff competition for the Japanese market, particularly from Australia, but he points to successes in other Asian markets. Seng: "We are pretty confident when you look at what's happened in Vietnam, when you look at what's happened in Taiwan. The markets where they can access the product, they buy as much as they can possibly procure." The U.S. Meat Export Federation is the trade association responsible for developing international markets for the U.S. red meat industry and is funded in part by check off dollars. I'm Bob Hoff.