U.S. Red Meat Export Opportunities Grow Following UK Trade Mission
Jay Thieler, chair-elect of the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF), recently returned from a trade mission to the United Kingdom with Idaho Governor Brad Little, where the delegation explored the expanding potential for U.S. red meat exports—particularly beef and pork.
Thieler shared his insights on the trip and the market outlook for U.S. meat exports to the UK.
“We talked a lot about the beef deal, but we also realized that there’s some opportunities for pork obviously. If they can work out some of the details on that, where the UK is taking a lot of pork from the European Union right now, so I think it’s in the range of between two and three billion dollars.”
This demand creates room for U.S. pork producers to compete in the market. On the beef side, the opportunity hinges largely on trade access and tariffs.
“So there’s an opportunity for pork and certainly there’s an opportunity for beef if we can get duty-free access to the British market.”
One of the key challenges for U.S. exporters is adjusting to the UK’s evolving regulatory framework post-Brexit.
“They’ve been aligned with the EU for so long and they’re so dependent on import and export with the European Union that we’re not sure what exactly those requirements are going to be, but there’s a lot of other access issues that are creating friction that we hope we can see some movement on, some of the phytosanitary regulations, labeling.”
Labeling requirements, in particular, pose logistical hurdles.
“I mean, they label right now everything going to the UK is still part of the EU, it’s labeled in eight languages, each individual piece is labeled. So there’s a lot of things like that that are details that make the trade more difficult. So hopefully we can work some of those things out.”
Thieler sees a promising fit between U.S. grain-fed beef and the UK’s foodservice industry.
“It’s a different type of product than is really produced in the UK. It’s, you know, high quality, grain-fed beef products. I feel like the steakhouse segment is really strong there.”
“There is definitely an opportunity for high quality grain-fed products from the States going over to the UK.”
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.