The world’s largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef, and pork, Tyson Foods, Inc., has issued a statement saying that although the company is encouraged by Japan’s decision to reopen its markets to US beef, sales will remain limited and the US beef industry is still facing serious problems.
The company stated, While we’re encouraged US beef exports to Japan will resume soon, sales will be limited since Japan will only accept US beef from cattle 20 months old or younger and because of the required cattle age verification process.
We look forward to doing business in Japan again and are hopeful it will trigger the reopening of other key markets in Asia, including South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. However, it will take time to return to meaningful export levels in Asia. In fact, even if these other markets open soon with less restrictive export requirements, we may not see significant export business to Asia until the second half of fiscal 2006.
In the meantime, the US beef industry continues to struggle with challenging market conditions, which include a continued short supply of market-ready cattle, low plant capacity utilisation and the seasonal slowdown in beef demand along with extremely cold weather in the nation’s major cattle production areas.”
