Japanese Buyers Tour Idaho Beef Facilities

A team of buyers from major Japanese beef importers recently visited Idaho, as well as Kansas and Colorado to learn about the beef supply chain, from ranch to feedlot, processing to retail.

“We had about a dozen buyers that represented four of the major beef importing companies in Japan come to visit us here in Idaho," said Agri Beef’s Jay Theiler, one of the hosts of the tour.  "We had the great opportunity to show them all the steps in the beef supply chain, starting with ranching, going to a ranch operation, and then a feedyard Agri Beef's feedyard out in Parma, ID. And then we took them to the producer owned plant, True West Beef in Jerome, ID, and showed them that. So they really got to see a good overview of all the steps in our U.S. beef supply chain, and see the focus that we put on quality.”

Theiler, U.S. Meat Export Federation chair-elect, said maintaining the relationship with Japanese buyers is key for the beef industry’s success.

“The Japanese markets are critical to Agri Beef. There's a lot of items that go over there that are not necessarily consumed here, domestically. And if you look at as an industry, exports in total are around $415 a head, but $75 of that actually comes from Japan. So it's actually a critical market. It's the number one volume market, and second only to South Korea and the value.”

The tour was supported by the Beef Checkoff Program, USDA, as well as the Idaho and Washington state beef commissions.

If you have a story idea for the PNW Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail glenn.vaagen@townsquaremedia.com