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The head of the U.S. Meat Export Federation said that the future looks bright for beef exports in most parts of the world. Philip Seng, president and CEO of the U.S. Meat Export Federation. said the Asian Crisis as it was in 1996 and 1997 is over. Those economies are coming back quite dramatically, Seng said. Demand for beef is up in Japan, and U.S. beef exports are up in the land of the rising sun. Seng said he expects it to continue to increase over the next several years. The Pacific Rim has traditionally led U.S. export growth. However, Mexico now accounts for about 19 percent of beef exports and commands second place for U.S. beef exports. Seng admits that there are problems with the Mexican market, but he thinks they will be solved. I sometimes call it the 3Ds,he said. There's demand, but there's also delisting and dumping that we have to contend with, but the 1990s have been very good to the beef industry as far as the Mexican market is concerned. Canada, which has traditionally been the United States' number two market, has been eclipsed by Mexico. Last year, Canada was also passed by Korea. Korea now ranks third in U.S. beef exports with about 10 percent of the export market. Canada accounts for nine percent of the U.S. beef export market. Europe accounts for four percent. The Middle East, three percent. Russia and China each account for about two percent. Central American and South America account for about one percent of beef exports from the U.S. A major concern of ours is what's going on in the Russian market,Seng said, but other markets are fast becoming strong markets. We're quite bullish as we look at the future. Most people have the perception that most of what we export are the middle meats,Seng said. There was a time when we did primarily export the middle meats. As we were entering international markets, it was only the top class hotels and restaurants that were able to afford our product for the foreign tourist. But times are changing. Some 77 percent of the U.S. exports to Japan are the outside meats. Middle meats constitute only about 23 percent of the market. Seng said, however, there is a tremendous increase in demand for specialty meats, tongue for example. Beef tongue in Japan sells for about four dollars a pound. He said there is also a large degree of diversification in the cuts that go to Japan. We probably export over 300 different kinds of meat products to Japan,Seng said. Only five percent of the beef exported to Korea is variety meat. The rest are outside meats. About 25 percent of the beef export to Mexico are middle meats. Seventy-five percent are outside cuts. This helps put upward pressure on cattle prices, he said. I think the key thing to remember is that for everything that we export, if we could sell it in the United States for more value, we'd be selling it in the United States,Seng said. Every pound of beef that is being exported is bringing upward pressure on the value of cattle. The USMEF is predicting a 64 percent increase in 1998 in U.S. beef exports by the year 2005. The USMEF is predicting a 38 percent increase in the Japanese beef market, a 99 percent increase in Mexico, a 235 percent increase in China, a 66 percent increase in Russia, a 140 percent increase in Taiwan and a 27 percent increase in the Middle East. They are predicting an eight percent drop in beef exports to Europe. |
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