SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The United States announced a plan five years ago that would have seen the country export three billion pounds of beef by 2010.
However, it has had to move that goal ahead to 2013 because of ongoing food safety issues related to the discovery of BSE in 2003.
The global recession also slowed down purchases.
The U.S. exported slightly less than two billion pounds this past year to about 100 countries.
“We have made great progress, but we are not there,” said Bob McCann, international market development committee chair for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
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“We may have gotten there without this economic crisis.”
The recession has reduced the global meat trade by 22 percent, said Phil Seng, head of the U.S. Meat Export Federation.
He said global meat consumption should improve by 68 percent, or 1.5 billion lb., between now and 2018, with a focus on mainland China and Japan.
The packing industry has evolved into a global enterprise that sees opportunities beyond the U.S. to maximize profit wherever possible. There is a wider demand outside North America for a greater variety of products from consumers who will pay more.
“In the past, the packers looked at the export market as a residual market to sell what they could not sell domestically,” Seng said.
“Now in the packers’ calculus, in the way they look at these markets, the export market is the primary market and the U.S. market is somewhat the residual market.”
Consumers in these offshore markets have set the standards for meat quality and food safety in the last decade. Exporters can gain access by giving these consumers what they want.
Until recently, Americans thought the U.S. Department of Agriculture label would sell itself, but today consumers want more information than just a government stamp.
Many Asian countries import half their food, and when they hear about BSE, influenza or bacterial contamination, they want to know where and how the food was produced.
Exporters know this and the international competition is fierce.
“The competition has never been more acute than it is right now,“ Seng said.
The Australians geared up exports to northern Asia when BSE showed up in North America and took over a large share of the market. However, they could not fully supply all their beef needs.
Canada and Mexico are also aggressive marketers. Seng said Canada started to have more success once it broke away from negotiating for access with the U.S.
“Canada has become very aggressive and a lot of people would be surprised to hear that Mexico is very aggressive internationally,” he said.
Mexican beef and pork are well positioned in Japanese grocery stores. Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay produce 40 percent of the world’s beef and are well placed internationally.
“When you go to any meat case around the world, you are going to see a plethora of products from a lot of different countries,” Seng said.
Seng questions whether the U.S. will be able to supply key markets once it gains wider access because its beef herd is shrinking every year.
For example, China is a fast growing economy that imports 400,000 tonnes of beef. The average Chinese consumes less than 100 lb. of meat per year while the average American eats about 275 lb.
“If China would just increase by 50 lb., that would be 50 billion lb.,” he said.
“That is about three times what we produce in the United States in any given year.”
