USDA: No Tainted Beef from Brazil has Entered the U.S.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture this week said no tainted meat from Brazil had entered the United States. The comments follow last week's findings of a bribery scheme at Brazilian meat packing plants to entice inspectors to turn a blind eye to tainted meat and sanitary issues. USDA says that while none of the slaughter or processing facilities implicated in the Brazilian scandal have shipped meat products to the United States, the Food Safety and Inspection Service immediately instituted additional pathogen testing of all shipments of raw beef and ready-to-eat products from Brazil upon hearing reports of the investigation. FSIS has also increased its examination of all these products at ports-of-entry across the country. The agency will indefinitely maintain its 100 percent re-inspection and pathogen testing of all lots of FSIS-regulated products imported from Brazil

House Passes Agro-terrorism Bill

The U.S. House this week passed the Securing our Agriculture and Food Act, agro-terrorism preparedness legislation that’s also up for a vote in the U.S. Senate. The bill passed the House by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 406-6. Iowa Republican Representative David Young, a sponsor of the bill, says the legislation is a step “towards protecting America and consumers from agro-terrorism, and other high-risk events that pose serious threats to our food, agriculture and livestock industries.” The Act requires the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, through the assistant secretary for Health Affairs, to elevate preparedness of our nation's food, agriculture and veterinary systems against terrorism and high-risk events. The bill authorizes DHS to collaborate with other agencies to ensure food, agriculture and animal and human health sectors receive attention and are integrated into the department's domestic preparedness policy initiatives. The U.S. Senate version of Young's legislation has been voted out of committee and is waiting for a vote to be scheduled in the full Senate.

U.S. Biodiesel Industry Calls Out Illegal Trading

The National Biodiesel Board Thursday filed an antidumping and countervailing duty petition, making the case that Argentine and Indonesian companies are violating trade laws by flooding the U.S. market with dumped and subsidized biodiesel. The petition was filed with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission on behalf of the National Biodiesel Board Fair Trade Coalition, which is made up of the National Biodiesel Board and U.S. biodiesel producers. NBB leadership says the “this is a simple case where companies in Argentina and Indonesia are getting advantages that cheat U.S. trade laws and are counter to fair competition.” Because of illegal trade activities, biodiesel imports from Argentina and Indonesia surged by 464 percent from 2014 to 2016, according to NBB. That growth has taken 18.3 percentage points of market share from U.S. manufacturers. This is not the first time that Argentine and Indonesian biodiesel producers have been charged with violating international trade laws.  In 2013, the European Union imposed 41.9 to 49.2 percent duties on Argentina and 8.8 to 23.3 percent duties on Indonesia. Just last year, Peru imposed both antidumping and countervailing duties on Argentine biodiesel.

USDA’s latest cold storage report released Wednesday did not present any major surprises

USDA’s latest cold storage report released Wednesday did not present any major surprises, according to the Daily Livestock Report, published by Steiner Consulting Group. “But broadly speaking we thought it buttressed the bullish case for beef prices in the very near term,” wrote Len Steiner, president of Steiner Consulting Group.Total red meat supplies in freezers were up 1 percent from the previous month but down 6 percent from last year, according to USDA. Total pounds of beef in freezers were down 7 percent from the previous month and down 1 percent from last year.February beef inventories declined by 35.5 million pounds, or 6.6 percent, from January levels — “far more than we normally see at this time of year,” Steiner wrote. “And inventories declined even as beef supplies continued to increase. Robust exports, a notable decline in imports and a favorable weather conditions likely all contributed to the larger than expected stock depletion."Meanwhile, frozen pork supplies were up 9 percent from the previous month but down 9 percent from last year. Inventories of pork bellies were up 15 percent from last month but down 74 percent from last year.“There was no appreciable increase in belly stocks during February, which is not a surprise since belly prices were near record highs,” according to Steiner. “We should see more bellies go into freezers in March and April, but maybe not enough to bring the stocks to normal levels.”

LIVESTOCK SLAUGHTER – FEBRUARY 2017 UNITED STATES HIGHLIGHTS

Commercial red meat production for the United States totaled 3.94 billion pounds in February, up 1 percent from the 3.90 billion pounds produced in February 2016. Beef production, at 1.93 billion pounds, was 3 percent above the previous year. Cattle slaughter totaled 2.37 million head, up 3 percent from February 2016. The average live weight was down 12 pounds from the previous year, at 1,360 pounds. Veal production totaled 5.6 million pounds, 8 percent below February a year ago. Calf slaughter totaled 40,200 head, up 10 percent from February 2016. The average live weight was down 46 pounds from last year, at 241 pounds. Pork production totaled 1.99 billion pounds, down 1 percent from the previous year. Hog slaughter totaled 9.37 million head, down 1 percent from February 2016. The average live weight was up 1 pound from the previous year, at 284 pounds. Lamb and mutton production, at 11.2 million pounds, was down 11 percent from February 2016. Sheep slaughter totaled 159,400 head, 9 percent below last year. The average live weight was 140 pounds, down 2 pounds from February a year ago. January to February 2017 commercial red meat production was 8.2 billion pounds, up 3 percent from 2016. Accumulated beef production was up 6 percent from last year, veal was down 7 percent, pork was up 1 percent from last year, and lamb and mutton production was down 1 percent.

Columbia and Snake River Dams Re-Open

  Columbia and Snake River Dams Re-Open. Please note that the dams are in river order from Portland to Lewiston:
·        The Bonneville dam reopened on schedule Feb. 9.
·        The Dalles dam, despite earlier worries of falling behind schedule, has reopened on schedule March 20.  
·        The John Day dam reopened ahead of schedule March 18.  
·        The McNary dam reopened ahead of schedule March 17.  
·        The Ice Harbor dam is behind schedule due to on-site work complications. It is tentatively expected to open March 23.    
·        The Lower Monumental dam reopened on schedule March 20. However, some work still has to be done on the dam's tainter valves, which will result in lockage times being longer by up to 20 minutes.  
·        The Little Goose dam is behind schedule due to on-site work complications. It is tentatively expected to open April 2.  
·        The Lower Granite dam reopened on schedule March 20. However, some work still has to be done on the dam's tainter valves. This will result in lockage times being longer by up to 20 minutes.
·        The delayed opening of the Ice Harbor dam will block the Snake River from Pasco, WA, eastward until it opens. It is estimated that 54 percent of the wheat shipped on the river is sourced from above Ice Harbor.
·        The delayed opening of the Little Goose dam will block the Snake River from the area of Starbuck, WA, eastward until it opens. It is estimated that 42 percent of the wheat shipped on the river is sourced from above Little Goose.

JBS S.A. decides to suspend operations in 33 out of 36 beef slaughter plants in Brazil for three days

JBS S.A. decided to suspend operations in 33 out of 36 beef slaughter plants in Brazil for three days beginning Thursday, after more than a dozen countries temporarily banned Brazilian meat imports this week, the company announced on Thursday.“In the next week, the company will operate all its units with a reduction of 35 percent in production capacity,” JBS added in a statement.The company aims to adjust production to demand as a consequence of the embargoes imposed by importers, after the country's Federal Police announced an operation to dismantle an alleged bribery scheme involving 33 federal sanitary inspectors and 21 meat processing plants.JBS added that “it is committed to maintaining the employment of its 125,000 employees throughout Brazil.”Since the investigations were announced last Friday, Brazil's daily meat exports fell to $74,000 on Tuesday from an average of $63 million before the probe was made public.China, Hong Kong, Egypt and Chile alone, which are among countries that temporarily banned purchases from Brazil, account for 53 percent of the country's total beef exports, according to data compiled by BTG Pactual bank, released in a report on Thursday.The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service decided to increase its testing on all shipments of raw beef and ready-to-eat products from Brazil, even though none of the slaughter or processing facilities implicated in the investigation have shipped products to the U.S.Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) on Wednesday urged the USDA to suspend all imports of Brazilian meat until agency officials can guarantee the products are not adulterated, mislabeled or expired. On Tuesday, Senator Jon Tester (D-Mont.) announced legislation to temporarily ban importation of Brazilian beef for 120 days, which would give time for the USDA to investigate potential food safety threats.The Brazilian government and meat industry associations have been trying to publicly assure importers and local consumers that Brazil's federal sanitary inspection system is rigid, and that the investigations do not question quality of the meat.“The investigation is not about the quality of the products, the investigation is about the conduct of people,” Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi said in a conference call with foreign journalists posted on Facebook Thursday.Brazil's Federal Police said in a joint statement with the Ministry of Agriculture that the Operation Weak Flesh finds punctual irregularities in the federal sanitary inspection, which relate “directly to deviations of professional conduct practiced by some servers and do not represent a generalized malfunction of the Brazilian sanitary system.”The Brazilian poultry and pork industry association ABPA said on Thursday that the events investigated by the Federal Police were isolated, and “the idea of systemic problems in the quality of Brazilian meat is absolutely wrong.”Brazil's Minister of Agriculture Maggi visited BRF's processing plant in Rio Verde (Goiás state) on Thursday with two TV crews from China, as part of the government's efforts to guarantee the quality of Brazilian meat and sanitary procedures.