A delegation of China AQSIQ is leaving today on a 2 weeks tour to the United States to review American beef production. China banned imports of US beef in 2003 following the first BSE case in the United States. Along with that, imports of US bovine blood products were stopped as well.
There is no clear timetable for resuming imports into China but according to expectations this may happen soon.
Besides the insufficient volume of beef imports China is currently facing a dramatic shortage of bovine blood products. This was caused by the recent ban on imports of New Zealand bovine serum that has not been resolved so far. There is hope that opening up the Chinese market for bone-in and boneless beef from the United States will lead quickly to lifting the import stop on US bovine serum as well. China is a significant market for bovine serum and other blood products. Getting access to it again will curb production in the United States but may also lead to price increases.
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