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The Cow That Stole Christmas: Ten years later

This week (December 23^rd) marks the 10^th anniversary of the United States’ first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), an event that closed nearly all international markets for U.S. beef and had a profound impact on the U.S. industry.

Ten years later, there are several countries that are still closed to U.S. beef, the most notable being China.  But U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) president and CEO Phil Seng is sounding more hopeful about the Chinese market.

“We know that our government is making a full-out effort—they were in Beijing here just recently—so hopefully they can come to some kind of understanding so we can get into what is now the world’s fastest-growing market,” Seng says.

Seng says even Mexico, a valuable and reliable market for U.S. beef, does not allow for all cuts from all ages of cattle.

“I’m eternally grateful for Mexico, because they were one of the first major markets to open up. But we still have items—probably worth 150 million dollars—that we can still do into Mexico,” says Seng.  “The Mexican market has been an extremely positive market for us—but again, as a result of our status now being ‘negligible risk’, we shouldn’t have any restrictions on our product. 

“So with all the markets we still have unfinished business with, we hope to get that rectified—hopefully this next year.”

Among other markets that never reopened to U.S. beef are Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Israel and South Africa.  Saudi Arabia, which had reopened, closed again in 2012 when another BSE case was detected in California.

Although U.S. beef exports are expected set a new record this year, approaching six billion dollars, USMEF estimates the cumulative, ten-year loss in U.S. beef trade due to BSE to be at least 16 billion dollars.