Slaughter slows but still ahead of last year

In addition to the ongoing problems of getting American beef back onto the shelves in Japan, Korea has also been exercising the political skills of the US authorities. US trade ambassador Susan Schwab has said that unless Korea fully normalises beef trade with the US, the government will not proceed with the proposed US-South Korea free-trade pact. Meatingplace.com quotes her as saying: 'We made it clear all along - I personally made it clear, the president of the United States made it clear to the president of Korea - that unless and until they reopen their market in full to US beef exports, we aren't even going to submit this FTA to Congress because we know Congress just isn't going to act on it.' However, life is not that simple as South Korean supermarket chain Lotte Mart is finding. When they offered US beef for sale, local farmers and activists threw cow dung on the floors of some of their stores. Meatingplace.com reported that sales were going well until the protests began to deter customers. It is hardly surprising that shoppers were initially keen to buy. US beef is priced at nearly half that of domestic beef. Lotte Mart still intend to offer US beef for sale in their 53 stores. Another twenty department stores and discounters plan to start stocking their stores with US beef from August 9. Talking to the radio station AgriRTalk, Schwab said she expects to see action from Korea by late September. 'I want to see beef moving. I want more than commitments. I want it done', she said. Meanwhile, Japanese imports of US beef increased by 50% in June over May. Indonesia is the latest country to assemble a team to assess the risk of cattle disease entering the country through imported US beef. They will inspect five companies, including Cargill. From October 1 USDA will ban the slaughter of cattle for human consumption if they cannot stand or walk. The veterinarian authorities (APHIS) have informed the United States Hide & Skin Association that they have discovered that illegal health certificates have been issued by some US hide exporters. 'China has now started sending US health certificates (mainly for export of hides) for us to verify and we are finding fraudulent certificates. 'In some cases, exporters have admitted to fraud beyond the certificates that were initially brought to our attention. They are altering certificates that they have had signed by APHIS and they are signing APHIS officals' names to certificates that were never presented to APHIS. 'Obviously we are taking action against these exporters when these problems are brought to our attention. However, the actions of what we hope are a few exporters are going to result in either the China market being closed or having more restrictions for everyone. 'Everyone needs to be clearly aware that these actions can easily result in this market being totally cut off. As we find more fraud, China is going to stop more shipments and request verification. The innocent are going to suffer along with the guilty.' Falling hide prices have led to unethical behaviour by certain tanners in China and Korea who have cancelled existing contracts. Many US hide exporters have been forced to re-sell hides previously sold at the earlier, and higher, prices. The offending tanners then re-entered the market and bought lower priced hides from different suppliers. During the four-week period ended July 21, 2007, Federally Inspected Slaughter showed an average weekly kill of 657,000, down from the 678,750 of our previous report. This compares with an average of 665,250 in the same period the previous year. During the review period the slaughter rate dropped from 1.9% above 2006 to 1.4%. In the four weeks ended July 12, China bought 1,094,900 US raw hides (945,400) making a combined total with Hong Kong of 1,236,500 (1,025,200). Korea came in second with 373,400 (390,000), followed by Taiwan with 188,400 (108,200). Hong Kong was in fourth place with 141,600, then Japan with 136,900 (73,200) and Mexico with 135,800 (95,800). Thailand took 100,900 (86,200), Vietnam 88,900 (36,400), Italy 14,600 (31,500) and Pakistan 10,700 (1,600). India was in eleventh place with 10,400, followed by Türkiye with 6,000 (5,000) and Uruguay with 2,100 (3,500). China and Hong Kong dropped out of the calf and kip market. Japan accounted for 8,000 (9,300), Mexico 2,900 kip (2,900) and Italy 1,000 calf and kip (8,100). India also took 700 calf skins. When it came to wet-blues, China retained first place with 141,800 (125,800) with Mexico again in second place with 92,300 (114,700). Korea was third with 78,800 (2,000). Hong Kong came in fourth with 51,900 (59,900). This gave China and Hong Kong a combined total of 193,700 (185,700). The Dominican Republic purchased 37,500 (47,400), Indonesia 31,600 (5,400), Thailand 17,800 and Germany 14,700. Italy was in ninth place with 13,000 (56,900), followed by Brazil with 11,900, Taiwan with 2,300 (20,300) and India 2,000. Hong Kong and China combined to buy 3,624,800lb (2,103,600lb) of wet-blue splits. Of these 1,183,400lb went direct to China and 2,441,400 via Hong Kong. Italy purchased 1,013,000lb (88,000lb) and Korea 578,900 (360,000lb).