Romanian Pig Meat on EU Markets for First Time

In the European Union, the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health in Brussels has given the go ahead for Romanian pig meat to be exported to other EU Member States.

This is the first time that Romania is authorised after its accession because of the classical swine fever situation that has largely improved in recent years.

Trade will be possible from a "channelled system" developed in Romania including selected pig farms, slaughterhouses and establishments that provide all necessary guarantees concerning bio security, hygiene and surveillance for classical swine fever.

In the US, the impact of exports on pork and beef markets has been considerable this year and the meat industry and market analysts, Steve Meyer and Len Steiner, were correct in forecasting that both could break last year’s levels before the October data were released, putting both sectors very near their all-time record highs with two months of 2011 yet to come.

The January-October total of 1.8 million metric tons of pork is 17 per cent more than last year and higher than the total for the same period of the previous record year, 2008.

On the beef side, this year’s January-October exports of almost 1.073 million metric tons is 24 per cent larger than last year and well ahead of the equivalent figure for the previous record year, 2003, before a BSE-infected cow was found in the US.

Texas AgriLife Extension Service economist, Dr David Anderson, believes that declining cow numbers in the US due to drought will lead to fewer calves, causing tighter supplies across the US next year.

“I think we will continue to maintain historically high prices,” Dr Anderson said recently at the Brock Faulkner-Brazos Valley Fall Cattleman’s Clinic in Bryan.

Dr Anderson said his 2012 target prices for 600-pound steers are $131-$138 per hundredweight during the first quarter, $136-$144 in the second quarter, $137-$147 in the third quarter and $133-$143 in the fourth quarter.

In Australia, Meat Standards Australia took another step forward with the launch of a new symbol to make it easier for consumers to make decisions around beef eating quality.

The new symbol, which features the green and gold ‘MSA graded’ look, will be positioned as a quality mark – not a brand in itself. It indicates that commercial brands have been graded to meet MSA standards.

MSA’s cuts-based grading system is based on predictive models that are the result of rigorous peer-reviewed science, underpinned by testing with almost 90,000 consumers who tasted more than 603,000 samples of different beef cuts prepared in different ways.