December 24, 2007

 

Texas sees huge opportunity in China's beef market

 

 

A Texan congressman and Texas A&M University officials are eyeing beef opportunities in China by helping the country develop its beef industry.

 

This is done by establishing huge cattle ranches and working to open American exports to China.

 

S. Rep. Mike Conaway, a Congressman from Texas and Dr. Russell Cross, deputy vice chancellor of A&M's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said last week that China's increasing affluence has sharpened its taste for beef.

 

Cross said A&M is about to sign memoranda of understanding with the China Rural Technical Development Center and a Beijing university to help improve food safety and exchange students.

 

"If any major university is going to have a major footprint in China, we want it to be us," Cross said from College Station. "We're trying to help them put the right infrastructure together for a strong food safety program, but they have a ways to go."

 

Cross noted that US companies like Flying Horse Ltd. of Seattle and others are trying to establish five one million acre cattle ranches in the US, indicating the distance China must go to establish its own beef industry.

 

China's population is estimated at 1.3 billion, of whom 400 million people now have the means to add beef to their diet, Cross said.

 

He also highlighted China's beef potential as its main sources of protein are pork and poultry while the beef industry is very "infantile."

 

Cross expects China would be a major importer of US beef, like South Korea and Japan used to be.

 

Cross said that China has a reputation of making huge strides in capitalism, noting that the country's biggest dairy, which has 30,000 Holsteins was built in four months.

 

Though most Americans think of other breeds as beef sources, Holstein steers produce 20 percent prime beef to Angus' and Herefords' 2 percent and will form the basis of China's industry, said Cross.

 

He said A&M and China Agriculture University in Beijing, which has an enrollment of 40,000, will start exchanging students next fall and offer joint degrees.