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With the bulk of the farm bill becoming law last week, mandatory
country-of-origin labeling (COOL) will finally become a
reality. And among the concerns that the U.S. beef industry
has is possible retaliation from Mexico if the new labels
dull U.S. taste buds to beef from Mexican cattle.
"There is a possibility the market might somehow discount
those products with lower pricing or consumers won't want
to buy them. Then Mexico might somehow want to retaliate
against U.S. beef, and that would be a tragedy," warned
U.S. Meat Export Federation Regional Director for Mexico
Chad Russell on a teleconference last week.
Mexico exports about 1.2 million feeder cattle to the United
States annually. In turn, it is the largest importer of
U.S. beef.
The current shortage of refrigerated containers to ship
U.S. meat by sea to other foreign markets makes Mexico an
even more important market for the United States, given
that product can be trucked across the border.
Other markets
In a roundtable discussion, USMEF regional experts also
made the following general observations about other U.S.
markets for U.S. beef:
- Getting
Japan to open its market to U.S. beef from cattle older
than 21 months is still hampered by politics as Japan's
opposition party uses the issue against the ruling party,
as well as concern that the U.S. does not test 100 percent
of its cattle for bovine spongiform encephalopathy. That
said, Japan faces a shortage of grain-fed beef exacerbated
by an Australian drought.
- The United
States and the European Union continue talks to open that
market wider to U.S. beef as the EU continues its ban
on Brazilian beef.
- The outlook
for U.S. pork exports remains bright for the next five
years as increased global protein demand meets global
pork production declines.
- High
hog prices in China are stimulating domestic production,
but declining grain production could limit that growth.
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