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U.S. cattle commonly have a time-release hormone implant behind an ear to hasten growth and reduce … [+]
The U.S. beef industry should get good news on Thursday, as the European Union Parliament is expected to vote to allow more U.S. exports.
This is the second piece of good news for the U.S. meat industry recently as exports of poultry to China have increased rapidly after it ended a five-year ban. That is in response to a crisis in the world’s largest producer and consumer of pork, created by a deadly African swine virus that has decimated the supply.
Both come as numerous sectors of the U.S. export market, from soybeans to oil to lumber, have been hobbled by the U.S.-China trade war.
While the expected European Union vote does not undo a 1981 ban on European Union countries’ imports of beef from cattle raised using growth hormones – a common practice in the United States – it will increase the amount of the hormone-free quota that would be reserved for the United States.
That quota, established in 2009, had been dominated by the United States until recently when some other nations, notably Australia, Uruguay and Argentina, began to export to the European Union. The U.S. percentage fell from 100% of the total to 30%.
The Netherlands is accounting for 32.% of U.S. fresh beef exports this year.
As it is, about 88% of the U.S. fresh-beef export market goes to just five nations – Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Canada and Taiwan. The Netherlands and Italy, the only two European nations among the top 10 U.S. export markets, account for less than 4% of the total.
Germany is the only European nation among the top 20 U.S. export markets, ranking No. 20 with about … [+]
When looking at frozen beef exports, another category in U.S. Census Bureau data, only one European nation ranks among the top 20 markets, Germany accounting for about one-third of 1% of the total.
Despite the relatively small market, the news is certainly welcome news to the U.S. beef industry.
