Agricultural News
NCBA's Kent Bacus Hopeful China May Soon Be a Billion Dollar Beef Market for US Producers
Thu, 16 Jan 2020 20:49:43 CST
President Trump called it a big beautiful monster. The phase one trade deal between the US and China was signed yesterday and received lots of positive comments from Agriculture groups.
Kent Bacus, Senior director for Trade and Marketing for the National Cattlemen's Association, says this is exactly what the US cattle industry needs to have a shot at selling a lot of beef to the Chinese, "This is a great day for the US Beef Industry. This is a great day for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. We've been working closely with the US government to try to open the Chinese market for well over a decade. This is a great, great day for us because not only do we have access to the Chinese market, which we've have a couple of years, but now we have meaningful access. We've been able to remove a lot of these non-tariff trade barriers, and that's what we're going to see is this agreement has implemented."
Bacus says one of the big wins for the beef industry is China's lifting of the BSE restriction, which had previously banned the US since 2003 out of the Chinese market. He says it will also lift the book-in traceability requirements, "One of the biggest things is that China is going to establish maximum residue levels for some very commonly used compounds in our industry, hormones. And as we move forward, it's going to be important that we do everything we can to adjust to these just these opportunities. And finally, be able to tap into one of the biggest markets in the world."
China has consistently been a large purchaser of beef from a lot of countries, but previously the US has never really been at the forefront, and Bacus says that's a problem, "When you look at the size of the Chinese market, you're talking about 1.4 billion, consumers. The middle class bigger than the entire US population. And yet, we were only able to sell $30 million, $60 million, $70 million worth of beef the last three years. We were missing a lot of opportunities in that market. And so once we're able to develop the supply chains, and we're able to market our product to Chinese consumers. I think China is going to be easily one of our top export markets in a very very short time."
Bacus also congratulated President Trump on his firm position with China," I think it also says a lot that President Trump took a very firm position with the Chinese and didn't capitulate like so many other countries have done. China's been able to have their way with a lot of other countries because of the size of their economy and their buying power. This is a big victory for science; this is a big victory for the US Beef industry because this will enforce fair trade with China. This is something we all, we should all support we should all get behind because we have a lot of opportunities that will emerge in the Chinese market."
Click on the LISTEN BAR below to hear the complete interview with Kent Bacus as he talks With Ron Hays.
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.
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