Just in time for Christmas, the US beef industry is getting a gift of sorts with a new opportunity to put the “cow that stole Christmas” back in 2003, behind us. This past August, the US and Brazil jointly announced that the two countries will open their doors once again to each other’s beef products. Cheyenne McEndaffer, technical services manager for the US Meat Export Federation, says it will be good to finally get some US beef into the Brazilian marketplace.
“We’ve been shut out of the Brazilian markets since our first case of BSE,” McEndaffer said, “as well as the Brazilians have been anxiously awaiting to ship beef to the US where they have been banned due to foot and mouth disease concerns.”
Both countries have agreed to accept fresh or non-processed beef products. But first, there are still some details to work out regarding labeling registration requirements in Brazil. Once those details are finalized, packing plants will be able to start the process of getting approved for their label registration and get shipping underway. The sooner this happens the better, says McEndaffer, because there is apparently high demand for certain cuts of US beef waiting for us there.
“Even though Brazil does produce some grain finished, British breed, high-quality cattle of their own, it’s very, very limited. So that’s really where we see an opportunity to supplement that with high-quality, grain finished US beef,” McEndaffer said. “Over the past few months, we’ve also heard of interest for other cuts that we didn’t initially expect like short ribs, chuck flats, tri-tips, strip loins, outside/inside skirts and chuck eye rolls.”
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