Source:  Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 5/20/09
 

High-quality U.S. beef is becoming a popular item in the Middle East, which traditionally has been a strong market for beef livers and other variety meats, according to the U.S. Meat Export Federation.

In the first quarter of 2009, U.S. beef muscle-cut exports rose 84 percent in volume and more than 40 percent in value over the same quarter last year.

USMEF Middle East representative Simon Bakht, who is based in Beirut, Lebanon, said in a weekly report that the increase is partly attributable to high-quality U.S. beef recently making the leap from the hotel, restaurant and institutional sector into retail in countries such as Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

Variety meats are "moving well," especially in Egypt, Bakht said. Other countries such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Dubai also are importers of beef livers, beef kidneys and especially beef hearts for manufacturing. And for the first time, in 2008, Egypt imported 5,000 metric tons of U.S. beef tripe.

Bakht said U.S. beef is benefitting from excellent access to Middle Eastern markets, which have very few trade barriers.

"We don't have accessibility problems in any of the Middle Eastern countries," he said. "We are working on some issues with the provincial government in the Kurdistan area (of Iraq), where they have a shelf life for beef livers of only three months from the date of slaughter, and that makes it almost prohibitive to get the product in. But as far as accessibility of the product, we don't have any problem either for high-quality beef or for variety meats."