WASHINGTON – The US Meat Export Federation recently noted in a weekly audio report that many of its offices around the world are collaborating to develop new markets for US beef and pork products that have historically been purchased by Chinese buyers.

The trade association stated that it’s monitoring the recent ruling by an appellate court on the legality of US tariffs, while noting that China’s retaliatory duties on US pork and beef remain in effect.

Current tariffs on US pork to China are 57%, while those on US beef are 32%. USMEF also said beef exports to China have been mainly halted with the Chinese government still not renewing the US beef plant registrations.

Homero Recio, the Latin America Representative for USMEF, said the association continues to promote pork variety meat to processors and wet markets in Colombia and promote beef short plate as a complement to popular rice dishes in Central and South American markets.

“We know how short plates, sliced thinly and how they’re used in Asia,”  Recio said. “We thought maybe that was an opportunity.”

Jihae Yang, USMEF vice president of Asia Pacific, discussed a promotion at the USMEF’s Korea office, which was a success with Lotte Mart, one of the largest grocery chains in the region, to develop more thinly sliced, frozen beef short plates. Yang said the retail promotion was successful that two competing grocery chains promoted the frozen short plate.

“A Korean importer took advantage because the short beef supply limited the product availability in Korea for the last couple of years due to the cattle cycle in the US,” Yang said.