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Last Updated on Tuesday, 20 July 2010 10:26

Written by Christy Hemken

Greg Hanes of the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) describes Tokyo, Japan, the most populated city in the world, as developed and built up, with people all over the place.
“You can’t even see the horizon for the buildings. It’s like that for miles,” he says. “It’s interesting, because you see the differences from the U.S., but also the similarities, and one of those similarities is U.S. beef. What U.S. producers make is the best product in the world, and when people taste it, they appreciate it.”
USMEF is a non-profit organization that’s focused on adding value to and increasing exports of U.S. meat for the last 35 years. It’s network of international office staff is mostly composed of people who are native to their location and act as the eyes and ears of the area’s meat industry.
“From 2008 to 2018 meat consumption in the U.S. will go up five percent, and globally it will rise 15 percent,” comments Hanes. “That increase is almost 18.6 billion pounds, and just that increase is about three-quarters of what we produce right now. That’s a lot of beef to provide for the world.”
“The U.S. is a main supplier, and Brazil has traditionally been a main supplier but their supplies are going down. Australia is steady, but they can’t increase, either. The U.S. is on an upper trend again, and if we can get to where we were on pre-BSE levels we’ll be the preeminent supplier to the world,” says Hanes. “That’s the biggest concern right now – meat the supply for world demand.”
“Per capita consumption is also going up, and that’s something we need to take advantage of,” he adds.
Hanes calls 2009 the year of challenges, listing a global recession, access issues and negative consumer perceptions as the top barriers for U.S. beef.
“It was a tough year, but this year has started so much better, and 2010 is a year of opportunity for us,” he says. “While the U.S. really got nailed with the financial crisis, debt and the housing dilemma, Japan’s banks weren’t involved in the speculation, so their system was very strong and helped boost the rest of the world.”
He adds that Japanese consumers also don’t have the credit debt of U.S. consumers. “Even though their economies were hurt, they still have a lot in savings, so they’re watching their pennies but they’re still out there spending,” he says.
“New markets are open in Korea, and Taiwan has improved. In April Secretary Vilsack visited Japan and China with a new approach in negotiating trade, so things are starting to move up this year,” says Hanes. “In early June Walmart announced its first-quarter earnings, which were up 10 percent, and that’s a good sign. Of their earnings, only one percent came from domestic sales. The rest came internationally.”
“Before BSE, 2003 was a very good year, but not our best year. In 2008 we were steadily increasing before hitting a speed bump, and this year we expect to eclipse the 2008 numbers,” continues Hanes. “Already in the first three months of this year the value of products exported exceeds the total for 2003.”
Hanes says the unofficial weekly export statistics indicate that almost every market is up. “The only outlier is Mexico, because of their economy and issues with cheap chicken. But otherwise we’re already up 25 percent for the first half of the year.”
He notes a key thing to look at is that the U.S. does not export steaks and middle meats, or other meats commonly consumed here. “The products going overseas are the products we don’t want to eat, and that leads to carcass value maximization. We’re sending livers to Egypt, short ribs and chuck all over the place. Getting more value for these cuts brings real dollars back to the U.S. In a lot of cases the price we get internationally is more than double what we could get here.”
Just based on export value, in the first three months of 2010, those cuts added $125 per head, says Hanes. “In some cases one cut to one market has a huge impact. For example, short ribs shipped to Korea are hot, and that one cut adds $15 to every animal in the U.S.”
A key area of growth for U.S. exports is Asia. “Through the end of last month we were already up 42 percent in Asia, and the growth continues. Asia is such a key market, but it’s one of the areas with the biggest hurdles – consumer perception.”
USMEF has worked to reimage the whole industry with integrated marketing campaigns in Asia. “The key thing about these campaigns is that every country is so different, and they have to be very localized. We try to identify what the concerns are in the markets, who has the concerns, then create a synergetic strategy to target and address the concerns of consumers, and as their concerns change we adjust as well. That enables us to be tactful, and it helps us build the U.S. brand.”
Hanes says the key is to move everyone away from a negative attitude and to the tipping point of positive momentum growing toward acceptance and growth of U.S. beef.
“The Aussies are getting nervous, and we’re now on the offensive on these markets. Their reports say they’re losing a lot of value to strong competition from the U.S. Trust in the U.S. product is starting to really increase.”
Hanes notes the USMEF’s next target is Taiwan, which is now in a similar situation in reopening markets to bone-in beef that Korea experienced when it reopened markets to U.S. beef two years ago.
“The people of Taiwan felt their government was letting in unsafe products, and that gave U.S. beef a severe beating,” says Hanes. “This summer we’ll launch a campaign called ‘We Love U.S. Beef’ using characters with a very deep and positive meaning to the Chinese. From focus groups we know we already have a very positive image with that campaign, and we’re trying to get the images out to redo some of the negative public relations.”
“The focus of USMEF is to put U.S. beef on the world’s table, and that means putting Wyoming’s beef on the world’s table,” says Hanes. “You produce the best beef in the world, and that makes our job so much easier. When consumers in these markets try it, they can tell that it is the best product.”
Greg Hanes spoke to the early-June meeting of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association in Casper. Christy Hemken is managing editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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Last Updated on Friday, 12 February 2010 06:38

Written by Christy Martinez

Denver, Colo. – “Today we have to start looking at our industry in a global context and understand how we relate and how we’re considered by our competitors and our markets.”
That was the opening statement made by Phil Seng of the U.S. Meat Export Federation at the 2010 International Livestock Congress held in conjunction with the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colo.
“The U.S. red meat industry is very highly regarded and has been successful over the years, and we export to almost 100 countries today,” he continued. “But today it’s not just the quality of the product that sells itself, but the story behind it and that’s becoming more important.”
The U.S. can produce everything its people can consume, while Japan can only produce 50 percent of its meat and Hong Kong imports 90 percent of its caloric intake.  That puts the U.S. in an ideal position for exports, provided it can produce the variety of products unique to and specified by other countries.
Richard Brown of GIRA Euroconsulting in France said the U.S. needs to be “incredibly careful to understand the complexity of different markets,” because it’s not just one big global market.
Brown said a 20 percent volume growth of meat consumption in the world is expected in the period from 2005 to 2015, and that it’s “phenomenally important” that over half of that extra meat will be consumed in China.
He continued that the global meat market outlook is the most optimistic it could be for beef. “Trade will grow, and it’s Brazil that’s the big winner in world meat trade.”
He said it’s “relatively marvelous” that Brazil’s meat trade, especially pork exports, grew as much as it did from 2002 to 2005, considering their lack of market access. “They don’t have many of the best markets in the world open to their pork,” he noted.
“The key thing for growth in the future and exploitation of agribusiness potential is market access and the ability to respond to what customers want,” said Brown. He added that care should also be taken when exporting to not undermine the producers in the domestic markets into which meat products are being exported.
However good export markets looked several years ago, Brown said that was before the “new world” of 2007 and 2008 and the economic challenges worldwide.
“It’s interesting to understand the implications on meat demand in economic crisis,” said Brown. “As a simple farmer from the south of England, I don’t believe that economies in U.S. and in Europe will recover from the shock of what happened last year very quickly at all.”
“If you go off to China and India, their economies somehow managed to shrug off the effects of America and Europe and keep going with export markets. They still record and produce the fantastic growth rates, which is why the world figure is very good,” said Brown.
But in the rest of the world, Brown said consumers everywhere traded down, both in quality and price, and that was within and between species.
He added that the return to a weaker U.S. dollar is a “significant advantage” to U.S. producers, and he said it will continue to be weak in years to come because of the various economic problems in the U.S. government.
Relating to feed prices, Brown said, “We are going into a long-term environment where feed will be more expensive. While that’s not an advantage to the beef industry compared to poultry, it is an advantage to you in the U.S. because you’re jolly good at producing beef. You do it well and efficiently and have a scale of operation more efficient than other people.”
“Never underestimate the importance of animal diseases to meat markets,” he added. “If you reflect upon 2009, it was a sheltered year and comparatively normal. The thing we’re quite worried about for this year is African swine flu. It has the potential to be quite disruptive to Russian pig production, and possibly production in the EU.”
Being from the UK, Brown said he’s had sadness for very nearly 20 years with BSE. “I had three cases on my farm in 1991. I can sadly say that on my farm I’ve had as many BSE cases as you’ve had in your country, which is a dramatic piece of perspective, and it’s unbelievable how expensive it’s been to deal with.”
He said he’s also been through the trauma of foot and mouth disease twice, which is “not the slightest bit amusing for anybody.” He adds it was a deeply troubling time and seriously disruptive and expensive for farmers to deal with.
“That was deeply demoralizing and incredibly expensive with a result in export markets being closed,” he went on. “My country’s a big importer, but not having access to exports is like keeping the lid on a pressure cooker. It’s unbelievably important to have good systems that work and farmers that understand the importance of them and don’t hide things.”
Regarding bovine tuberculosis, Brown said badgers in the UK are heavily infected with TB and they spread it amongst cattle farms. “The government’s spending $150 million a year, and achieving absolutely nothing,” he explained. “Which is extremely annoying and 40,000 cattle a year are being destroyed for TB. British farmers aren’t optimistic for the future because of cumulative issues like that, and a government that doesn’t support us.”
Moving on to political developments that will impact global beef trade, Brown said, “Absolutely do not underestimate the importance of the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit. There was a disappointing outcome that presents a serious challenge to the ruminant industry regarding the impact of livestock on the environment.”
Brown said the “Less Meat, Less Heat” slogan needs to be taken seriously. “That’s a powerful statement that resonates with consumers in many parts of the world,” he said.
However bad global economics were in 2009, world meat consumption only declined a fraction, with expectations of one percent growth in 2010. “That’s not bad going in a bad economic climate,” said Brown.
Christy Hemken is managing editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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Last Updated on Monday, 24 March 2008 04:41

Written by Jennifer Womack

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Last Updated on Friday, 11 February 2011 14:02

Written by Christy Martinez

Washington, D.C. – Right now there’s much competition with the U.S. for beef imports in the Asian markets from Australia and the European Union (EU), and Senator Enzi’s Legislative Assistant Travis Jordan says that’s accompanied by great potential for market access.
“The EU just finished up an agreement with Korea that will be finalized over the next year, and the U.S. is in that process, and there’s potential for Europe to get ahead of us,” says Jordan.
“One thing we’ve learned from market access for products, especially beef, is that as soon as there is some market access it’s a lot tougher to push somebody else out of the market. We want to get there first, and be there with a strong presence, otherwise it will be tough to regain market share,” he explains.
Jordan notes that the new Congress presents a better opportunity for increasing beef exports overseas. “Perhaps they will be more accommodating in expanding free trade,” he says, adding there are also some changes in the Senate Finance Committee, with members who have historically been supportive of sending beef overseas.
The rising incomes of citizens in southeast Asia, Vietnam and even China have created an accompanying rise in demand for protein, including U.S. beef.
“There’s a lot of potential for market access,” says Jordan. “They don’t have the beef production to support their population’s growing taste, and it’s a question of whether the U.S. or another market gets in those places.”
Jordan says the biggest free trade agreement that’s currently pending is the Korean Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
“That’s the biggest one of concern, and it will most likely move in the next few months,” he says. “The last few months we’ve been hearing some news on it, and in early December the President announced it had some momentum.”
The Korean FTA has two outstanding issues – automobile access and beef trade.
“They’re strict on what they allow U.S. auto makers to take into Korea, mostly because of the tariffs. The Korean market in the U.S. is strong, because we don’t have the same tariffs. That issue was resolved a week-and-a-half ago, saying the Koreans will allow additional market access,” comments Jordan.
However he says there was no announcement on beef at that time. “The only announcement by trade representatives was that there will be something on beef in the future, and it will move,” he says.
Even though the beef announcement has been absent to date, Jordan says he sees the momentum on the Korean FTA continuing.
“U.S. beef is a very sensitive issue in Korea. The last time there was additional market share, there were protests in the streets,” he reminds. “We need to recognize that, and that’s why it hasn’t moved in the last couple of months.”
Jordan says the Korean FTA is the most likely FTA to be considered by Congress next year. “A lot of the labor and environmental issues the Democrats have pursued have been agreed to by Korea, as well as the auto issue,” he says.
In addition to the major agreement with Korea, Jordan says Columbia and Panama also have pending FTAs.
“The Columbian imports are an advantage because they’ll be for prime cuts of beef. Panama doesn’t have as much significance in terms of economics, but it helps to lower some of the tariffs on U.S. products,” he explains.
In regard to other Asian markets, Jordan says the U.S./Taiwan Beef Protocal was signed in 2009, shortly before the Taiwanese congressional elections.
“They backed away from the agreement they signed with the U.S., and since that time our exporters and the industry have worked to get as much of that agreement back as we can,” says Jordan.
“That’s a setback we communicated as Congress to the Taiwanese government, and they seem committed to at least pursuing additional market share in the future,” he says. “We’ve made it clear that if they want to pursue trade frameworks they’ll have to take beef as well.”
China has always been a tough market, without much access for U.S. products in general. Jordan says in late December the U.S. and China will talk once again at the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade that’s been an annual event since the 1980s. Jordan says a priority this year will be market access for U.S. beef.
Jordan names Vietnam as another Asian market that’s experiencing significant growth and higher incomes, which has led to a higher demand for beef products.
“Beef cows don’t do very well in southeast Asia. It’s a little too hot and the vegetation isn’t right. Talks to include Vietnam in the Transpacific Partnership would help us pursue some additional FTAs with that country, and beef would be a part, as well as some dairy, and even hay,” says Jordan. “Vietnam imports a lot of hay for their dairy industry, because they can’t grow hay, so quite a few exporters in California ship their hay across the ocean to Vietnam.”
Jordan concludes that Korea is the key to opening many of the other markets across the Pacific Ocean, including Japan and China.
Travis Jordan presented his information to the Wyoming Stock Growers Association Winter Roundup in Casper Dec. 12-14. Christy Martinez is managing editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .