Beef Industry Expects Indirect Boost As 2-Year Ban Lifts in Japan

By Sharon Kiley Mack, Bangor Daily News, Maine

Dec. 13–Maine’s beef producers are hoping that Japan’s lifting of a trade ban imposed on the U.S. because of mad cow disease will trigger holiday sales.

More than 100 countries banned U.S. beef in December 2003 after the country’s first case of mad cow disease. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Michael Johanns announced the resumption of trade with Japan on Monday.

“Japan’s action today sets an excellent example for other countries in Asia whose markets remain closed,” Johanns said. “Now is the time for Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and others to open their markets to U.S. beef. American producers are proud of our safe, high-quality beef products and we greatly value the opportunity to promote the safety of our products to consumers in Japan and around the world.”

In 2003, the U.S. exported $1.4 billion worth of beef and beef products to Japan. Before the December 2003 ban, the U.S. exported beef and beef products to 119 countries. With the opening of Japan, 70 countries have now re-established trade to at least selected U.S. beef and beef products.

Maine’s $70 million beef industry won’t directly benefit from the ban’s demise, but the trickle-down effect could come just in time for Christmas.

“We are hoping that Maine consumers will hear that the ban has been lifted and feel more secure about buying beef,” Matt Randall, president of the Maine Beef Producers’ Association, said Monday. “On the national outlook, we are hearing that people are not enthused about buying beef for their holiday meals. Maybe this will help.”

Last December, 17.1 million pounds of rib-loin roasts were purchased nationwide, and Randall hopes a new consumer confidence in beef will tip the scales this holiday season.

Mad cow disease is the common name for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, a degenerative nerve disease in cattle.

In people, eating contaminated meat products is linked to a rare but fatal disease called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. More than 150 people have died of the disease, mostly in the United Kingdom, where there was an outbreak in the 1980s and 1990s.

Since finding mad cow disease in a Washington state heifer in December 2003, the U.S. confirmed a second case in June in a Texas-born cow.

Another big stumbling block for Maine producers, Randall said Monday, is the lack of a USDA-certified slaughter facility in the southern part of the state that can meet the producers’ demand.

“We have been researching the issue of a regional facility, particularly since New Hampshire also has no USDA inspected slaughter facilities,” Randall said.

Maine’s beef producers are forced to truck beef to Pennsylvania for slaughter and then bring the processed meat back to Maine. This adds additional costs to the products, Randall said, particularly with higher fuel charges.

“Not only does the meat cost more, but we lose control over the end product,” Randall said. “It’s killing us to have to ship these animals.”

Randall said Maine’s beef industry is fighting hard to get a facility in Maine and “has a number of pokers in the fire.”

While there have been discussions with USDA officials in Washington, D.C., “the biggest drawback is the money,” he said.

But “a regional facility would provide for an economy of scale,” Randall added. “Because Maine is not a huge beef state, such a regional facility could serve both our own industry and the needs of surrounding states.”

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