Source:  Richard Smith, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 3/7/11

Before coming here, John Butler, a Dyersburg, Tenn., farmer who grows soybeans, cotton, corn, wheat and rice, and also runs a cow-calf herd of 200 mommas, thought Japanese culture and Japanese people did not want U.S. beef.

"It looks like they want our product, but we haven't jumped into all the hoops to get the product back in," Butler told Meatingplace.

Butler, director of the United Soybean Board director, came as part of a delegation led by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) and including the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the Nebraska Beef Council (NBC), the North Dakota Beef Commission, the Illinois Farm Bureau and 10 grains organizations, which visited Japan and Taiwan last week. At a housewives' focus group, all seven participants said they were interested in having a variety of protein sources and meat sources in their diet. "They said they would try it if it were less expensive," Butler said.

USMEF international program assistant vice-president Greg Hanes, who captained the delegation, told Meatingplace Japanese beef is much more expensive than U.S. beef, but "there is not enough opportunity to buy U.S. product."

Japan only imports meat from U.S. (and Canadian) cattle aged 20 months and under, without SRMs. This anti-BSE measure limits volumes of beef that can be sent to Japan, and requires age verification for U.S. cattle.

NBC director Myron Danner's ranch has 300 cows and brings 250 to 275 heads to market every year. Three years ago, his ranch went "age-and-source." Under this protocol, calves must be tagged from birth, and records maintained for a period of time. It's an extra effort for a premium varying from $10 to $35 from the packer, Danner told Meatingplace. "You see a lot more of these cattle advertized than used to be," Danner said.

Hanes said although there is a higher supply available in the winter, Japanese and Taiwanese importers have also raised their purchases in the summer to build up their stocks. Taiwan demand had been steadily increasing, but a recent ractopamine scare has hurt business. "Because of ractopamine, a lot of the importers are reluctant to import product," Hanes said.
 

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