MINNEAPOLIS — Exports are big business for the U.S. beef industry, which shipped a record $5.4 billion worth of beef abroad last year.
It was the first year sales surpassed those in 2003, when exports to Asia collapsed amid the first U.S. mad cow disease scare. Before Tuesday’s announcement that mad cow disease had been found in a California dairy cow, the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicted exports would drop slightly this year as ranchers limit production because of drought and high feed costs.
Last year, 14 percent of the beef produced in the U.S. was shipped overseas. Measured in both sales and volume, exports saw growth of more than 20 percent according to the U.S. Meat Export Federation. Four countries, Canada, Mexico, Japan and South Korea, accounted for 65 percent of last year’s exports.
CANADA imported 191,047 metric tons of U.S. beef in 2011, a 25 percent increase over 2010. It was worth $1.03 billion, up 41 percent from 2010. Canada was the first of the United States’ major trading partners to say Tuesday that it was confident in the U.S. food safety system and would not limit imports because of the mad cow case.
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