Chinese officials have agreed to open that nation's market to U.S. beef exports and that is good news for Kansas cattle ranchers.
Scarlett Hagins, with the Kansas Livestock Association, says China is a huge market that also has a demand for cuts of beef that don’t sell as well in America. Hagins says it’s not clear when Kansas beef producers could begin shipping to China, because there are still details to work out.
“This is a great first step, but the next step involves the technical negotiations between the counties to establish the rules and protocols for beef produced in the United States to be sold in China,” says Hagins.
The ban on selling U.S. beef in China has been in place for 13 years, since BSE –sometimes called “mad cow disease”- was found in a cow in Washington State.