Three and half years after the first confirmed case of mad cow disease in the U.S., the annual volume of beef exports is only about half of what it was in 2003.
ART HOVEY / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Thursday, June 14, 2007 7:00 pm
Three and half years after the first confirmed case of mad cow disease in the U.S., the annual volume of beef exports is only about half of what it was in 2003.
As Gov. Dave Heineman and a Taiwanese trade delegation signed a new meat agreement in Lincoln on Thursday, U.S. Meat Export Federation figures gave some measure of how much ground Nebraska and other leading beef export states still have to make up.
Headed into 2007, the dollar value of annual overseas sales was still down about 50 percent nationally from 2003.
Largely because of export restrictions imposed by Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and other Pacific Rim countries, lost sales amount to almost $1.9 billion and about 600,000 metric tons on an annual basis.
The impact of the cutbacks falls heavily on Nebraska, which accounted for about 20 percent of all beef exports prior to the discovery of the first infected cow in Washington state.
The Nebraska Beef Council measures the loss this way:
In 2003, the state was exporting the equivalent of about 2,600 cattle per day. At the end of 2006, it was about 1,300.
Despite that, the governor and representatives of the state’s beef, pork and poultry sectors were smiling Thursday as they met with a team that included four Taiwanese meat buyers and officials from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Kansas City.
“This is the first time a Taiwanese meat team has visited our state,” Heineman said amid much bowing and handshaking. “I am extremely proud that each and every one of you are here.”
Jack C.K. Chen, director general of Taiwan’s Kansas City office, responded in kind. “Taiwan continues to be a growing market for U.S. agricultural products,” he said.
The Pacific Rim nations eliminated or substantially cut back their imports of U.S. beef out of concern that consumers could contract the human equivalent of a livestock brain-wasting disease by eating infected meat.
Citing circumstances in which cooking doesn’t eliminate that risk, Taiwan and other countries have refused to buy any meat with bone or connective tissue in it.
That reflects research that indicates the brain-wasting effects are most likely to be in those parts of cattles’ bodies.
Japan, Nebraska’s leading overseas customer through 2003, has imposed a separate precaution — no beef from animals more than 20 months old.
Before Thursday’s brief ceremonies began in the governor’s hearing room, the state’s agricultural trade representative explained that all the signatures don’t signify any specific sales.
“They’re looking so they can buy,” said Stan Garbacz of a series of stops at the Farmland pork plant near Crete, MBA Poultry at Waverly, the Norbest turkey processing plant at Gibbon, and the Swift beef plant at Grand Island.
“We’re hoping between now and September there will be some actual purchases made,” Garbacz said.
In a prepared statement, the Taiwanese team said it was in the market for delivery of about $380 million of U.S. beef, pork and poultry products in 2008 and 2009 and that “a significant portion of this commitment will be from the meatpackers and processors of Nebraska.”
Terry O’Neal of Friend, president of the Nebraska Pork Producers, Scott Felber of Goehner and the Nebraska Turkey Growers, and Craig Uden of Elwood, chairman of the Nebraska Beef Council, were among others signing the trade agreement.
Taiwan ranks fourth in beef imports behind Mexico, Canada and Japan in that order.
Strong demand for beef from U.S. consumers has lessened the damage to the beef bottom line.
And Garbacz and Ann Marie Bosshamer of the Nebraska Beef Council headquarters in Kearney said they’re optimistic about regaining all of the lost international beef market share.
“I think that’s very possible,” said Bosshamer, “but it’s going to take a lot of hard work.”
Garbacz offered similar thoughts.
“I think we’ll eventually get back to where we were. It’s just going to take some time and effort.”
The key, he said, is for Japan and other countries to start accepting bone-in beef from animals up to 30 months of age.
Among the positive steps in that direction was an announcement from Japan Wednesday it was relaxing a requirement of testing every box of beef entering its ports for mad-cow disease.
Last month, the World Animal Health Organization designated the U.S. as a “controlled risk country” for the disease.
Lynn Heinze of the U.S. Meat Export Federation office in Denver said that meant all U.S. beef with SRMs (bone and other specific risk materials) removed qualifies for trading.
But Heinze noted that is only a guideline for specific trading rules between meat exporting and importing countries.
Reach Art Hovey at 523-4949 or at ahovey@alltel.net.