World meat industry news

South Africa had committed in Paris to accommodate USDA’s request for recognition of its current negligible risk status under bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and resume its imports of US beef.

This is according to a Foreign Agricultural Service report which said the issue has not been concluded.

The US has been unable to export US beef to South Africa under terms consistent with its OIE risk status since 2005, when the United States resumed exports of beef to many nations, the report said.

The US began exporting a limited scope of products to many nations in 2005 following the implementation of the ruminant feed ban.

As the OIE’s determination of the US BSE status changed to controlled risk in 2008 and then to negligible risk in 2013, the scope of the United States’ exports to most countries expanded to reflect the improved BSE status.