Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 6/16/14

A delegation of China’s food safety agency leaves Monday for the United States to review American beef production as both sides continue to discuss increased trade to help shore up China’s beef shortage.

On the sidelines of the 20th World Meat Congress held here, Phil Seng, president and CEO of the U.S. Meat Export Federation, confirmed the trip and told Meatingplace he is confident the audit will result in increased access for U.S. beef in China.

“It looks quite optimistic. Our expectation is that hopefully this is the time that something positive will happen” and China will remove its outright ban of imports of U.S. beef that it established in December 2003 following the first U.S. case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, he said.

There’s no clear timetable for a reopening, as the Chinese delegation from Beijing’s Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) will have to develop a report on its findings after the two-week U.S. tour. But Seng said he believes it will happen “in the near future.”

The expectation at this point is that China would begin with a staggered protocol initially allowing imports of bone-in and boneless beef from U.S. cattle 30 months age or younger. Washington and the beef industry for years angled for nothing but full access, but that approach never worked.

“There’s a realization that in all these different countries that they have a different rulemaking process, and we have to be somewhat sensitive to those processes,” Seng said of a new approach.

The process for the AQSIQ team will be a two-week visit that will begin with a USDA briefing in Washington and include trips to Texas and California to tour ranches, slaughterhouses and feed mills.

Discussion early on at the World Meat Congress in Beijing has focused on increasing meat demand all over the world, particularly in China, and how trade barriers need to be removed in order for the industry to meet that demand.

Seng said the Chinese government acknowledged in meetings this past week that China has a beef shortage of 1 million metric tons.

“One million metric tons is a huge appetizer for us as far as taking a look at this market,” he said.

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