Meat + Poultry - March 2006 - 51

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and so have some of the South American countries. Should we expect these
countries to roll over anytime soon?
No, they're not. Australia has just
raised its checkoff rate from just less
than A$2 to more than A$5, and that's
all going to be devoted to the international marketplace. It is going to be really concentrating its efforts on sustaining
its 400,000 metric tonnes in the Japanese market and also on sustaining their
exports to Korea. At one point the U.S.
had 59 percent of the total meat import
market, but now we see Korea as being
a major battleground as far as getting
back into that market. Canada is now
outspending us by five times. It makes
it very difficult to get back in to these
markets with competition like that.
We always look at the domestic market first, but I think if you really look at

the value, if you look at the future, to
have a balanced portfolio is probably
the best way, I think, to assure a company's welfare and also the welfare of
the whole industry in the long term.
The pork industry has been a bit
brighter than beef for U.S. exporters
over the past few years. In fact, U.S.
pork exports set a record in 2005 for
the 15th consecutive year.
Pork has been a very bright spot.
When you look at worldwide consumption, pork has been one of the
fastest-growing areas, along with
poultry. Pork at one point in time was
one of the least-traded food items in
the world, because a lot of it is produced and consumed domestically.
But we're seeing more and more pork
being traded.

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56

MEAT&POULTRY

March 2006

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What's the long-term potential for
pork exports from North America to
China? It's a huge pork-consuming
country, but China also produces a
huge number of hogs.
They grow half the world's supply
of hogs, and they eat more than half
the world's supply of pork. If you're
going to talk pork, China looms very,
very large in the discussion. But we
have a plethora of problems dealing
with China. Everything in China is so
immense. When you talk about food
safety in China, there are something
like 13 federal agencies in China
that oversee that. It's one of the most
opaque governments that you can deal
with. Let me say, though, that while
China's complicated, it's a huge potential market for us and we're going to
go after it.
What are some of the growing markets for U.S. pork that might not be so
challenging as China?
Japan is still a very promising market for us. It's growing. There's declining domestic pork production in
Japan, but we see pork consumption
in Japan continuing to grow at a 2 to
3 percent pace per annum. That's very
good. Obviously, how we work in the
W.T.O. negotiations could even further
augment our sales to that market. Right
now we're the leading supplier of pork
to Japan; we're working very aggressively in the chilled area.
Korea is another major potential
pork area. Its pork production is going
down, so the talk of a free-trade agreement with Korea is encouraging for the
whole meat complex in this country.
We've had a very good year in Korea
this year, and we see those numbers
going up. Mexico has also been a very
strong-performing market for us.
Beyond beef and pork, is there reason
for optimism with regard to any other
U.S.-produced meats?
We've had a good year in lamb this
year. Our grain-fed lamb is highly
prized abroad, especially in the foodservice area, in white-tablecloth restau-

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Meat + Poultry - March 2006

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