Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 4/19/17


Increasing beef and pork exports to China are important to the future of the red meat production and processing industries — but those relationships are complicated, according to the analysts of the Daily Livestock Report (DLR).

Parsing the data in the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service’s semi-annual review of global livestock and poultry markets, Steiner Consulting Group’s DLR unit notes that “China has emerged in recent years as the top beef market in the world,” with imports up seven-fold over levels just six years ago.

China’s insistence on traceability, however, is an obstacle for U.S. exporters.

Demand for pork also is increasing in China, although again, that country’s insistence on certain procotols — such as no ractopamine — are a problem for U.S. companies, most of which do not control the supply chain vertically and so cannot guarantee the product meets Chinese requirements.

To read the report in its entirety, click here.

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