Agricultural News
The Deal is Done! USMEF Exec Says US Now Has Better Access to China Than Any Other Exporter
Tue, 13 Jun 2017 12:38:35 CDT
The US Department of Agriculture announced Monday that the US and China had formally come to an agreement on the protocols that will allow US beef into China, a key marketplace that has been closed to the US since 2003. Those requirements were publicly posted by the USDA yesterday. Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays spoke with Thad Lively, US Meat Export Federation senior vice president for trade access, about this exciting news. But, while the framework is now there - Lively says there will still be some ramping up to do before we are selling beef to China at full steam.
"In some respects, the requirements go beyond what we must do to have access to a lot of markets around the world and as a consequence," he said, "I think it's probably realistic to think in the beginning anyway, our exports are going to start out pretty slow."
Lively says he expects that business and volume will gradually build over time. But, one of the major hurdles to getting production up to speed will be getting producers on track with traceability. The new requirements specify that an animal must be able to be traced back to its birth farm. Even though some of these measures are more stringent than normal, Lively insists the potential profitability from this agreement will be well worth the effort.
"We have access to the Chinese market under better terms than any other beef exporting country," he said. "That's a big win for all of us, and that's something that we all owe the folks at USDA and the US government more broadly, a big thank you for."
Listen to Lively and Hays discuss the spectrum of requirements now agreed to by the US and China, to allow US beef exports into the Chinese market, on today's Beef Buzz.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today's show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI
Top Agricultural News
More Headlines...