THE implications for the global meat industry from last week’s phase-one trade agreement between the US and China will come under scrutiny in a webinar being held on Thursday morning.

Agricultural trade analysts Global AgriTrends will host the free webinar, featuring a range of trade experts based in the US, China, Australia and Brazil.

The panellists will discuss the US/China trade agreement and its potential global impact on industries in Australia, the US, China, New Zealand and South America.

For the Australian red meat industry, the first phase of the US/China agreement announced last Thursday provides as many questions as answers, and feedback this week from some Australian exporters suggests that the US may struggle to supply the China market under the

new terms.

One of the reasons offered was that the US would find it difficult to service China with chilled beef, based on transport distance and shelf-life limitations on US product.

If it must resort to frozen, most of the large US fed beef plants are significantly limited in their freezing infrastructure, with most geared towards chilled production for the US domestic market.

That contrasts strongly with many large Australian export processing plants, which have invested heavily in high-volume plate freezers and frozen storage infrastructure.

With age restrictions now being dropped on US beef, some US cow plants might now target

China more heavily, but for the broader US industry focussed on chilled beef production, supply may be difficult, Australian exporters told Beef Central this morning.

Additionally, hefty duties still remain on US beef, relative to other suppliers like Australia, and at this point at least, US beef consigned to China will have to be ractopamine free.

It’s issues like these that are likely to come up during Thursday’s webinar.

Taking part on the webinar as panellists will be:

• Brett Stuart and Richard Fritz, principals of US-based consultancy Global AgriTrends
• Gerrard Liu, from China’s Meat International Group
• Brazilian analyst Lygia Pimentel, principal and CEO of Agrifatto
• Australian independent meat and livestock analyst Simon Quilty, who regularly provides commentary on Beef Central

The one-hour webinar will be held on Thursday morning, January 23, from 8am Melbourne/Sydney time (7am Brisbane time).

Click this link to register to join the webinar

 

 

 

 

 

• 

  Simon Quilty

  Global AgriTrends was founded by Richard Fritz and Brett Stuart in 2006, after the pair noticed some major deficiencies in global analysis and reporting of market intelligence and trade data. The firm is rooted in providing clarity to a variety of participants in the global agri-food sector.