China is working hard to resolve issues that would allow imports of US beef to resume for the first time since 2003 when a Washington State outbreak of “mad cow disease” prompted Beijing and other countries to restrict them. The world’s fastest-growing beef market last year and the fifth-largest buyer of imported beef by volume.
Mark Fischer, agriculture marketing manager with the Iowa Economic Development Authority and a member of an Iowa beef industry trade mission to China last month, said in an email to China Daily that although no date for a resumption of China-bound US beef exports has been announced, “it is hoped that beef exports will resume in the summer/fall time period”.
“We are optimistic that the two countries are working to resume US beef exports,” Fischer wrote. “Chinese demand for beef is growing and the US has the ability to supply high quality, grain-fed beef.