Meat + Poultry - August 2007 - 22

INTERNATIONAL
Japan: BSE controls in U.S.
have room for improvement
This past month, Japanese officials continued expressing concerns about the
United States' ability to control bovine spongiform encephalopathy in its domestic cattle herd. During negotiations held in Japan to discuss removing some
limits on U.S. beef exports to Japan, Japanese negotiators pointed out that the World Organization for
Animal Health, which classified the United States
as a "controlled risk" country for BSE, stated in
a part of the report not made public that the
U.S. still has "room for improvement" in its
BSE controls.
U.S. industry officials touted the OIE
listing at the time of its announcement as a key endorsement of U.S. efforts to
eradicate BSE, thus providing leverage to its negotiating position with reluctant customers such as Japan and South Korea.
The OIE scientists who handed down the controlled-risk designation advised
in their report that as long as specified risk material continues to be rendered
and enter the animal feed chain, BSE would continue to be a threat to U.S. cattle
The OIE report's fine print advised the United States to "carefully consider" banning the feeding of all rendered cattle parts to other livestock.

New label for Canada's
organic food
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is putting its
stamp of approval on organic foods. The agency unveiled a label last month that will be displayed on organic foods meeting the CFIA's strict standards.
Those standards include using natural fertilizers,
raising animals in conditions that mimic nature, and
products containing at least 95 percent organic ingredients. Legislators in Ottawa announced new regulations last year requiring all organic foods to be certified for domestic and international trade by the end of 2008.

Better Beef reduces slaughter, trims staff
More than 300 employees at the Better Beef processing plant in Guelph, Ontario,
were out of work at the end of July. Cargill Ltd., Minneapolis, which bought the
plant in 2005, announced it would be trimming its workforce from about 1,100
employees to 800.
The cuts were achieved by eliminating an
afternoon shift in the cutting room and reducing the number of cattle killed daily from
1,700 to 1,400.
Chris Watson, chairman of Local 175 of the
United Food and Commercial Workers union, said workers learned of the cuts July
23. Cargill spokesman Rob Meijer said the company hopes some of the laid-off employees can be called back to work, but admitted he was 'not overly optimistic.'
Meijer said the layoffs are the result of the lingering impact of the BSE crisis,
and prices being driven down by a strong Canadian dollar.
24

MEAT&POULTRY

August 2007

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U.S. pork exports
decline
Pork exports for May were down
10.1 percent from a year earlier,
according to Glenn Grimes, Univ.
of Missouri agricultural economist.
The declines were most prevalent
in four countries: Mexico, down 47
percent; Russia, down 36 percent;
South Korea, down 24 percent; and
the Caribbean, down 11 percent.
Pork imports for May, on the
other hand, increased 9.01 percent from last year. Pork imports
from Canada were down 0.01 percent for January-May, Denmark,
down 13 percent; Poland, up 21
percent;Netherlands, down 95
percent; and Hungry were down
54 percent.
Grimes said net pork exports
for the first five months of the year
declined by 0.55 percent from last
year. The net pork exports as a
percent of production for JanuaryMay were 10.12 percent in 2006 and
9.57 percent in 2007. The growth
in live hog demand of 3.8 percent
for January-May appears to all be
from the domestic market, he noted. Live hog imports from Canada
during May were up 25.24 percent
from the previous year.
"We expect live hog imports
from Canada to continue to grow
for some time," said Grimes. "We
probably will get more feeder pigs
as well as more slaughter hogs.
The strength of the Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar is challenging the Canadian producers to
be as low cost as U.S. producers
and the U.S. packing industry is
more efficient then the Canadian
industry."
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture is forecasting 2007 pork exports from
the United States to decline slightly from 2006, which would break
a string of 15 years of record-high
exports each year.

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Meat + Poultry - August 2007

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