Tongues are big business in the meat trade
Reuters
Fri Jul 7, 2006
By Bob Burgdorfer
CHICAGO, July 7 (Reuters) - Beef tongues, a popular export item to Japan, tumbled from $5 a pound wholesale in the United States to about $1 when Tokyo banned all U.S. beef about two and a half years ago.
Bruce Berven, director of marketing for the California-based Harris Ranch Beef Company, hopes that the tongues it used to ship to Japan will go back to $5 now that Tokyo has agreed to buy U.S. beef again.
"On a per head of cattle basis, you are looking at $13 to $15 difference per head. That's huge economically in the beef business," said Berven.
The tongue incident is a good example of why foreign markets are important to U.S. meat companies.
Each year, U.S. beef, pork, and poultry companies export hundreds of millions of dollars worth of various meat items that most Americans never see on store shelves, but are considered a delicacy elsewhere.
Foreign countries buy steaks, pork chops, and chicken too but it is the stomachs, tongues, kidneys, livers, and chicken feet that U.S. meat companies are particularly anxious to export because if sold domestically, those products would bring much lower prices.
The beef tongues that Harris Ranch sells is a case in point. Japan and other countries banned U.S. beef products in late 2003 when the United States reported its first case of mad cow disease. It was shortly after that Berven saw tongue prices drop to $1 to $1.25 per lb.
KIDNEYS, LIVERS ARE BIG BUSINESS
While some of the mad cow bans have been lifted, others remain, like Japan's and South Korea's. It is hoped those two markets will open soon.
In the industry vernacular, the tongues and internal organs are called variety meats and produce significant revenue for meat companies.
The U.S. Meat Export Federation, which develops foreign markets for U.S. beef and pork, reports that in 2005 the United States exported nearly $447 million worth of beef variety meats and $355 million worth of pork variety meats.
For beef, that amount should increase when Japan, South Korea and a few other countries lift their bans.
In comparison, in 2003 before U.S. beef was banned around the world, U.S. exports of beef variety meats were valued at $712 million.
"Something like kidneys have very little value in the United States, but internationally it is three to eight times as much," said Lynn Heinze, USMEF spokesman.
FLIPPERS AND FEET HAVE MARKETS TOO
Pork and poultry companies export similar nontraditional meat products.
Hog stomachs, tongues, and jowls go to Japan; pigs feet, chicken feet, and wing tips (flippers) go to China; and turkey tails go to Africa and the South Pacific. Turkey tails are nugget-size portions at the end of the spine.
The pork exports have been going well and chicken exports are improving after slowing earlier this year because of the deadly bird flu overseas.
There are concerns that if the bird flu arrives here chicken exports could interrupted at least temporarily, said Toby Moore, spokesman for USA Poultry and Egg Export Council.
Dark meat leg quarters accounted for nearly 85 percent of the $2.1 billion worth of chicken the United States exported last year, with the remaining 15 percent including such things as wing tips.
That figure does not include chicken feet and paws. USDA reported $135 million of those were exported last year, up from $95 million in 2004.
Jay Simpson, global sales manager for commodity and trading at the No. 3 U.S. poultry company Perdue Farms, said his company's paws go to China and there is enough profit to make it worthwhile.
Without China, the paws would likely go to rendering companies to be processed into pet food or animal feed.
"It is my understanding they are used in sauces," said Simpson of Chinese market. "We have three or four plants that produce them. If we didn't harvest them they would go into rendering."
today.reuters.com
Reuters
Fri Jul 7, 2006
By Bob Burgdorfer
CHICAGO, July 7 (Reuters) - Beef tongues, a popular export item to Japan, tumbled from $5 a pound wholesale in the United States to about $1 when Tokyo banned all U.S. beef about two and a half years ago.
Bruce Berven, director of marketing for the California-based Harris Ranch Beef Company, hopes that the tongues it used to ship to Japan will go back to $5 now that Tokyo has agreed to buy U.S. beef again.
"On a per head of cattle basis, you are looking at $13 to $15 difference per head. That's huge economically in the beef business," said Berven.
The tongue incident is a good example of why foreign markets are important to U.S. meat companies.
Each year, U.S. beef, pork, and poultry companies export hundreds of millions of dollars worth of various meat items that most Americans never see on store shelves, but are considered a delicacy elsewhere.
Foreign countries buy steaks, pork chops, and chicken too but it is the stomachs, tongues, kidneys, livers, and chicken feet that U.S. meat companies are particularly anxious to export because if sold domestically, those products would bring much lower prices.
The beef tongues that Harris Ranch sells is a case in point. Japan and other countries banned U.S. beef products in late 2003 when the United States reported its first case of mad cow disease. It was shortly after that Berven saw tongue prices drop to $1 to $1.25 per lb.
KIDNEYS, LIVERS ARE BIG BUSINESS
While some of the mad cow bans have been lifted, others remain, like Japan's and South Korea's. It is hoped those two markets will open soon.
In the industry vernacular, the tongues and internal organs are called variety meats and produce significant revenue for meat companies.
The U.S. Meat Export Federation, which develops foreign markets for U.S. beef and pork, reports that in 2005 the United States exported nearly $447 million worth of beef variety meats and $355 million worth of pork variety meats.
For beef, that amount should increase when Japan, South Korea and a few other countries lift their bans.
In comparison, in 2003 before U.S. beef was banned around the world, U.S. exports of beef variety meats were valued at $712 million.
"Something like kidneys have very little value in the United States, but internationally it is three to eight times as much," said Lynn Heinze, USMEF spokesman.
FLIPPERS AND FEET HAVE MARKETS TOO
Pork and poultry companies export similar nontraditional meat products.
Hog stomachs, tongues, and jowls go to Japan; pigs feet, chicken feet, and wing tips (flippers) go to China; and turkey tails go to Africa and the South Pacific. Turkey tails are nugget-size portions at the end of the spine.
The pork exports have been going well and chicken exports are improving after slowing earlier this year because of the deadly bird flu overseas.
There are concerns that if the bird flu arrives here chicken exports could interrupted at least temporarily, said Toby Moore, spokesman for USA Poultry and Egg Export Council.
Dark meat leg quarters accounted for nearly 85 percent of the $2.1 billion worth of chicken the United States exported last year, with the remaining 15 percent including such things as wing tips.
That figure does not include chicken feet and paws. USDA reported $135 million of those were exported last year, up from $95 million in 2004.
Jay Simpson, global sales manager for commodity and trading at the No. 3 U.S. poultry company Perdue Farms, said his company's paws go to China and there is enough profit to make it worthwhile.
Without China, the paws would likely go to rendering companies to be processed into pet food or animal feed.
"It is my understanding they are used in sauces," said Simpson of Chinese market. "We have three or four plants that produce them. If we didn't harvest them they would go into rendering."
today.reuters.com
