October 4, 2008

US beefs up for EU-bound meat exports

US cattlemen and meat packers are ramping up the production of hormone-free beef for shipment to the UK and throughout Europe.

US beef producers acknowledge that even if the country's government prevails in its decade-old case against an EU ban on US beef at the World Trade Organisation, EU consumers will not eat meat produced with growth-enhancing hormones.

Due to a growing domestic market for hormone-free beef, cattle farmers across the US are switching to rearing cattle without growth promotants and are eyeing Europe as an emerging market.

In the first half of this year, the EU imported 7,761 tonnes of US beef, a 179-percent increase from 2,786 tonnes in 2007, according to the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF).

"Within three to five years Europe will be the second or third meat importing market in the world," the USMEF vice-president, Thad Lively, said.

While the competition will be intense in the UK, US producers believe their grain-fed cattle will be more attractive to customers than grass-fed products from elsewhere in the world.

Grain-fed livestock produce a marbled meat with fat interspersed among the muscle tissues, which results in a juicier and tastier food.

The EU requires third party verification of all claims, as well as identification and traceability standards and an annual audit.

Leann Saunders, the president of third party verification company, IMI Global said EU standards were the toughest in the world but the European market was still attractive to producers already in compliance with the USDA's non hormone-treated cattle standard.