Beef exports to China could mean big revenue for U.S. ranchers

Garden City, Kansas – The price of beef could soon increase after agriculture officials announced a new deal with China.

This would reopen the markets to U.S. beef and could potentially be worth billions of dollars a year.

Kansas rancher Lee Reeve said, “Any time you have more markets, it’s got to be good.”

And when it comes to markets for beef, few is bigger than China.

By late summer, U.S. ranchers will be shipping beef to the Asian nation for the first time in more than a decade.

“Oh I think it’s great. It’s long overdue. It’s been 13 years since we’ve been shut out of that market,” added Reeve.

Agriculture expert John Jenkinson said, “This all goes back to 2003 when we had ‘the cow that stole Christmas.’”

China stopped importing U.S. beef after a case of mad cow disease was discovered in Washington State.

With the flow of beef from the U.S. to china starting back up, the impact it will have is a massive one.

“This could mean anywhere upwards of, north of 2.6 billion dollars in revenue coming back to the United States and erase some of that trade deficit,” Jenkinson said.

In addition to helping the U.S. compete against Australia, New Zealand, and other countries that export beef to China, the new market will also help ranchers sell certain cuts of beef that aren’t too popular in the states.

Reeve said, “Certain Cuts like the hearts and the tongues and a few things like this, we don’t use so much of that in the United States, but they use a lot of it in Asia, and of course china is the biggest Asian market.”