China was, of course, the main focus of the USMEF discussions about the Asian markets for beef.
“This is the beginning of a long road,” summarized Joel Haggard, USMEF senior vice president, Asia Pacific.
Haggard explained that, since China first began accepting imports of U.S. beef back in summer, there has been relatively little trade.
“The latest USDA weekly export report showed just over 800 tons of product exported so far since shipments started in late June. That’s a very modest amount—just a fraction of what we ship to Taiwan in maybe one or two weeks—so we have a long way to go here.”
The reference to Taiwan is no coincidence. Haggard called it a glimpse of what the U.S. might see with trade to China in the future.
“We have a 70 percent share of the chilled import market there, and it’s a very high-quality market,” he said, noting that U.S. beef to Taiwan shows up mainly in a wide variety of food service.
“It’s really helped sustain demand and values for items like short ribs and short plates. These are items where we depend a lot on the overseas markets for the value that that gives to the overall carcass.”
The challenges however, are numerous.
“China is [a market] where we have to try to sell the whole animal in the market because of its requirements for so-called natural cattle and traceable cattle and the extra cost that that imparts on the animals destined for the China beef supply chain,” Haggard explained.
Selling the whole animal could be tricky. Asian markets do not tend to utilize some of the more U.S.-popular cuts like chuck and round.
“This is going to be a big challenge. I’d say if there’s one hope on this is that a lot of Chinese buyers don’t have any preconceived notions and they are willing to sample the product.”
It’s not all challenges and difficulties with unusual cuts, however. Haggard said there is “great interest” in China for offal. While there are some discrepancies between the eligible offal lists according to USDA and the Chinese authorities, he said the offal horizon looks good for the U.S.
“We’ll have some advantage over our competitors because none of our competitors have any offal access.” — WLJ
