beef exports

In FERN's latest story, published with Switchyard magazine as part of its special food issue, Siddhartha Deb delivers and intimate portrait of how beef has been used in India to define the social order, punish political opponents, and legitimize political power.

Beef exports were the smallest in 10 years during May and pork exports were the lowest in seven months, "due in part to interruptions in slaughter and processing," said the U.S. Meat Export Federation. Chief executive Dan Halstrom said the global economic slowdown and stay-at-home orders in some Western Hemisphere nations also were factors. (No paywall)

U.S. exports of hormone-free beef to Europe would triple under an agreement signed by President Trump and hailed by EU officials as a sign of tangible results for the strongest trade relationship in the world. Meanwhile, China said it “will have to take necessary counter-measures” if the United States expands the trade war on Sept. 1, as Trump says he plans to do.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue will celebrate the reopening of the Chinese market to U.S. beef on Friday at the same time the Trump administration is considering trade action against Beijing. The first shipment of U.S. beef arrived in China on June 19 following a 13-year absence from that market.

Following the first shipments of U.S. beef to China in 14 years, the U.S. Dairy Export Council says the United States and China have signed a memorandum of understanding “on dairy trade assurances that will allow more exports from the United States.” At the same time, a consumer group said the United States should not allow China to ship poultry products to America.

With China and the United States trying to improve trade relations, White House press secretary Sean Spicer announced the publication of the USDA’s final details for beef exports to China, which have been barred since the first U.S. case of mad cow disease, in 2003.

Last August, Brazil said it would remove barriers to U.S. beef that were imposed in 2003 to prevent mad cow disease. Nine months later, the first shipment of fresh U.S. beef has cleared customs for sale to Brazilian consumers.

U.S. beef imports are declining and are forecast to be 14 percent lower in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period a year ago, say USDA economists.

With a scandal clouding Brazil's meatpackers, Montana Sen. Jon Tester announced legislation for a 120-day ban on U.S. imports of meat from the South American country. The ban will give USDA "time to comprehensively investigate food safety threats and to determine which Brazilian beef sources put American consumers at risk," said Tester's office.

U.S. agricultural exports have begun to rally and will continue the record-setting pace that began in 2009, USDA reported, in an estimate for fiscal year 2017 and a revised forecast for fiscal year 2016. China has now advanced to the No. 1 export market for U.S. farm goods, surpassing …

After dipping to 2.27 billion pounds in 2015, U.S. beef exports are forecast to climb 9 percent this year, and to climb again next year, said the monthly Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Outlook. "The U.S. competitive advantage in beef production relative to other major beef producing nations has enabled it to increase its market in global beef trade," says the USDA report.

Saudi Arabia lifted its four-year-old ban on U.S. beef, reopening a promising export market that was closed to the American livestock industry following discovery of the fourth U.S. case of mad cow disease. “Re-opening Saudi Arabia’s market will create additional export opportunities for American ranchers,” said U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a statement.

The first shipment of U.S. beef has arrived in South Africa, part of a reopening of a market that was closed to U.S. beef, pork and poultry for years, said the USDA.

Some 16 percent of U.S. beef, pork, broiler chicken and turkey meat will be exported this year, an upturn from 2015, forecasts USDA, with poultry showing the largest gains.