A Growing Taste For American Beef In Asia Has US Exporters Busy Trying To Keep Shelves Stocked

Erin Borror is an economist with the US Meat Export Federation. She met this past weekend with Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays at the Texas and Southwest Cattle Raisers Convention in San Antonio, where she told him, right now our beef exports are really doing very well.

“Exports just took off in the second half of last year, but it took a while to get that momentum going,” she said. “And now, that’s carried on with exports running up double digits to the start of this year.”

This momentum behind beef demand on the export market, she says, is being driven by Asian consumers who Borror suggests are “rediscovering” US beef. In particular, chilled beef products have become very popular in both Korea and Japan where they’ve increased their imports of these products by up to 50 percent.

“Korea has been amazing and kind of firing on all fronts,” Borror stated. “Where our real focus is in Korea as well as Japan, is on retail. We’re doing everything we can to build further shelf space for chilled US beef at retail.”