Marketing Beef Beyond the U.S. Border: What Are the Expectations?

The United States is the 4^th largest exporter of beef in the world, behind India, Brazil and Australia. Following the setback in exports due to the 2003 Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) case, the U.S. returned to pre-BSE export levels in 2011, and has been highly successful in markets like Mexico, Japan and South Korea. However, to reenter these markets in the post-BSE global beef market, some countries require additional requirements to export to their market. Countries like Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan place age requirements on U.S. cattle supplying beef to be exported. More recently, China has made it a condition to export U.S. beef that cattle meet strict traceability requirements that go above and beyond the systems the U.S. currently has in place. Additionally, the use of hormone implants and beta agonists are restricted for exports to China, the European Union (EU) and Russia, and residue testing and limits for beta agonists and other veterinary drugs varies globally. While exports of U.S. beef account for less than 15 percent of the total volume produced, exports add considerable value to live cattle and beef cutout values. In order to participate in markets like China, the EU, Japan and others, the packers and producers must make decisions on the value exports to those countries provide compared to the additional production costs which are added in the supply chain. The U.S. beef industry has widely adopted production technologies to improve efficiency and productivity; however, these technologies have limited the U.S. industry’s access to lucrative export markets due to non-science based restrictions imparted by foreign countries. The focus of this discussion will be what market access barriers are in place around the world, what the U.S. must do to be successful exporting beef to these markets, and how the global beef market competitors handle these challenges.