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CHICAGO, March 27 (Reuters) - U.S. beef sales to China fell, U.S. government data showed on Thursday, after Beijing allowed registrations authorizing exports from hundreds of American meat processing plants to expire.
A retaliatory tariff dispute has also raised duties on U.S. meat and other products shipped to China, making the products less attractive to Chinese buyers. The spat adds new tensions to relations between the countries that had already hit historic lows in recent years.
China has not renewed export registrations for U.S. beef plants that expired on March 16, although it has updated registrations for pork and poultry plants, according to traders and the U.S. Meat Export Federation trade group.
As a result, U.S. exporters and Chinese buyers are reluctant to make deals for American beef produced after that date because of uncertainty about whether it will be cleared for delivery, federation spokesman Joe Schuele said.
“Nobody wants to put the product at risk,” he said.
U.S. beef export sales to China in the week ended March 20 were almost nothing, at 54 metric tons, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. Sales were also low, at 192 metric tons, the week before, as traders said uncertainty over export registrations cooled business before they expired.
Previously, weekly sales were near or above 2,000 metric tons for four straight weeks from mid-February through early March, USDA data show.
The decline in Chinese demand is a blow to U.S. meatpackers such as Tyson Foods (TSN.N) that are already paying high prices for cattle due to tight supplies.
“The meatpackers are all worried because obviously it’s a big market for U.S. beef,” said Altin Kalo, an agricultural economist at Steiner Consulting Group. “We’ve been basically at zero for two weeks now.”
The USDA and the Meat Institute, an industry group representing U.S. meat processors, had no immediate comment.
China’s Commerce Ministry launched an investigation into surging beef imports late last year as the world’s largest meat consumer struggled with an oversupplied market that hurt domestic beef prices. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for next week.
Reporting by Tom Polansek Editing by Rod Nickel
