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BEEF EXPORTS, PRICES UP

Concluding two years of negotiations, Japan last week lifted its ban on imports of American beef. By far the most profitable overseas market for the U.S. beef industry, Japan, along with other countries including Mexico and South Korea, had imposed the ban shortly after the United States' first confirmed case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, in December 2003."Resuming beef

Concluding two years of negotiations, Japan last week lifted its ban on imports of American beef. By far the most profitable overseas market for the U.S. beef industry, Japan, along with other countries including Mexico and South Korea, had imposed the ban shortly after the United States' first confirmed case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, in December 2003.

"Resuming beef trade with Japan is great news for American producers and Japanese consumers," said Mike Johanns, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, in a public announcement following Japan's decision. "Under the agreement announced today, the United States is able to export beef from cattle 20 months of age and younger to Japan. More than 94% of total U.S. ruminant and ruminant products, with a total export value of $1.7 billion in 2003, are now eligible for export to Japan."

Of the 119 countries that imported U.S. beef prior to the BSE case, 67 have returned to the table. Packers and processors, which blamed the withered export market for plant closures and layoffs this year, have been cheered by these developments. But American beef consumers are not likely to see prices drop anytime soon.

Demand for beef remained strong during 2005, in spite of heated controversy over renewing imports of Canadian beef after two additional cases of BSE were confirmed there early this year, and despite another domestic case of BSE confirmed in June.