July 31, 2006

US beef imports still lag behind pre-ban levels

US beef imports are still significantly lower than pre-ban levels, an industry source said.

Despite the ban on most cattle more than 30 months old, the US industry is more than adequately supplied, industry source Cattlenetwork said.

Canadian beef exports to the US to the end of May are up 12 percent compared with the first five months of 2005.  Exports currently total 56,496 tonnes, from 50,455 tonnes a year ago. However, it is still less than half of that before mad cow disease in 2002.

Meanwhile, the level of US beef exports to Canada, which consists of mostly high quality beef, is returning to pre-ban levels.

So far in 2006, 31,364 tonnes of beef have been imported from the US into Canada, more than double the same time in 2005.  This compares to 40,656 tonnes before the ban. 

US imports currently make up half of all beef imports into Canada compared to one-third in 2002.

Beef imports from New Zealand are currently down 20 percent from 2005 at 16,073 tonnes.  This is less than half of the 36,860 tonnes before the ban.  New Zealand imports make up 28.5 percent of all imports so far in 2006. 

Imports from Brazil, which only consists of 2 percent of the total, remain about the same as in 2002.