Creekstone Farms CEO John Stewart said he was "cautiously optimistic" that an agreement may soon be reached with USDA that will allow the Arkansas City, Kan.-based processor to voluntarily test all of its product for bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
"Right now, what I can say is that we are in continuous negotiations with USDA, but at this moment, there are no definitive plans that will allow us to test all of the cattle," Stewart said. "There will be additional conversations, and I'm now cautiously optimistic this can be resolved."
As of late Friday, USDA spokespersons would not comment on this reported development.
South Korean and Japanese trade officials said they wanted to reserve detailed comment on this issue until they have reviewed any proposal USDA might offer on the issue, though one South Korean trade official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said USDA's apparent reconsideration of the issue was "remarkable," and that it might signal greater U.S. flexibility on moving negotiations to resume the shipment of U.S. beef to the country forward.
Extremely significant
"This could be extremely significant," the official said.
The quick turnabout might indeed be significant. Just three weeks ago, USDA's position was that it would not allow voluntary testing of product by a processor. But since then, Creekstone's proposal has been the focus of hundreds of news stories and broadcasts.
On Thursday, a senior Japanese official told a news conference in Tokyo that Japan might revise its blanket import ban on U.S. beef if U.S. exporters test all cattle for export for mad cow disease in cooperation with the U.S. government. Japanese news services have reported during the past two days that Tokyo officials have learned USDA is considering allowing individual processors to voluntarily test all of their beef destined for Japanese export.
"We will welcome private-sector testing with the U.S. government's firm involvement," said Mamoru Ishihara, vice minister for agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
Agriculture officials at both the Japanese and South Korean embassies in Washington said they were cautiously optimistic that the plan could allow at least some U.S. beef back into their countries. Japan bought $1.4 billion worth of American beef last year. South Korea is the United State's third largest beef export market after Japan and Mexico, and is widely believed in U.S. government circles to follow Japan's lead on agricultural trade issues.
"I think this seems, on the surface, to be a positive development," said Sato Tadashi, a Japanese Agriculture attaché at his country's Washington embassy, in a telephone interview with Meatingplace.com. "I would say that our general view is that it is good news. Of course, it will be up to higher authorities and experts in Japan to review this, but it does seem to be an important development."
Tadashi said he expects Japanese officials will demand USDA formally signing-off on the reliability of the testing protocols and that Creekstone's proposed testing program be approved by the Organization of International Epizootics.
But Tadashi also cautioned that his nation's testing requirement is by no means the only sticking point in reopening trade.
"The U.S. needs to comply with our requirement that it remove all of the risk material, the brains, the spinal cord, the spinal column of all the animals it processes, and we haven't seen compliance on that front," Tadashi said.
A very big turnaround
Jaesoo Kim, a South Korean agriculture attaché at his country's Washington embassy, told Meatingplace.com that USDA's reported willingness and apparent support in facilitating Creekstone to execute its test plan "would be a very big turnaround" from the agency's previous position. Kim said he expects the development to be "very widely and thoroughly discussed" among South Korean officials, characterizing the development as "a good starting point."
"Right now, I have no official announcement from USDA, so it is really not right to pre-conclude what this will mean," Kim said. "But it appears, at the least, to be a starting point for some far-reaching discussions."
On Monday, USDA announced a planned ten-fold increase in its testing program with an annual target of 221,000 animals during 12 to 18 months beginning in June. Included would be 201,000 animals considered at high risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, such as downers. That announcement did not win support from Japanese and South Korean officials.
Creekstone officials said the company has been losing about $80,000 a day because of the trade embargo—about $80 per head of cattle it slaughters-- and has been forced to cut back operations to four days at its plant, which processes about 5,000 head of Black Angus cattle each week.
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