Reading Time: 2 minutes Los Angeles | Reuters –– A McDonald’s Corp. shareholder group is renewing its call for the fast-food chain to stop buying any meat from animals raised with antibiotics vital to fighting human infections. The move from the Congregation of Benedictine Sisters of Boerne, Texas, comes amid growing concern from public health experts that the overuse […] Read more
McDonald’s investor wants it to cut antibiotics in all meats
Brazil looking to open Canadian, Saudi Arabian fresh beef markets
Reading Time: < 1 minute Brasilia/Reuters – Brazil is working on a deal to open the Canadian market for fresh beef in the second half of 2015 and is in the final phase of opening the Saudi Arabian market, the agriculture ministry’s secretary of international relations said on Monday. Brazil also expects a final deal to export beef to Japan […] Read more
Ukraine opens to more Canadian beef imports
Reading Time: < 1 minute Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and International Trade Minister Ed Fast have announced the Ukrainian market has opened for beef from cattle under 30 months of age and ready-to-eat meat. In 2014 Ukraine lifted a ban on imports of other Canadian beef products imposed after Canada reported a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in 2003. A […] Read more
Canada preparing shorter list of tariff targets in COOL fight
Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg | Reuters — Canada is whittling down its list of U.S. products that it may hit with steep tariffs in retaliation against contentious meat-labeling laws, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said on Tuesday. The Canadian government is likely to target beef, pork, California wines, mattresses, cherries and office furniture, possibly along with other goods, from […] Read more
Peru, Taiwan, Belarus ban Canadian beef over BSE case
Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters — Three more countries have blocked imports of Canadian beef or beef products, following Canada’s discovery of BSE earlier this month, its first in four years. Taiwan, Peru and Belarus have imposed trade restrictions on beef and/or beef products, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said on Monday in an update on its website. The […] Read more
Ireland says China agrees to lift ban on Irish beef
Reading Time: < 1 minute Dublin | Reuters –– China has agreed to lift its ban on Irish beef, Ireland’s Prime Minister Enda Kenny said Friday, making it the only European country to be allowed to export beef to both the U.S. and China. Ireland last month became the first European Union country to regain access to the lucrative U.S. […] Read more
West Coast port impasse beefs up U.S. meat stockpile
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. meat exporters caught in the middle of the West Coast port labour standoff diverted millions of pounds of chilled pork and beef into cold storage facilities over the last few weeks, creating an oversupply of meat, analysts said. Redirected protein shipments come as frozen inventories are starting to build ahead […] Read more
Brazil exported 3.3 per cent more beef in 2014, industry says
Reading Time: < 1 minute Sao Paulo | Reuters –– Brazil, the world’s top beef exporter, shipped 1.56 million tonnes of meat abroad in 2014, 3.3 per cent more than it did in 2013, industry association Abiec said on Thursday. Volumes exported were near the 2007 record of 1.62 million tonnes. Beef exports by value were a record US$7.2 billion […] Read more
New company set up to deliver BIXS livestock data system
Reading Time: 4 minutes A new company — a partnership between the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) and livestock technology company ViewTrak — plans to bring the newborn unsteadiness of an information exchange network to a full gallop for all Canadian livestock sectors. The as-yet unnamed private company was formed to bring the CCA’s beef information exchange system, BIXS, to […] Read more
Shuttered Que. beef plant’s equipment sold
Reading Time: 2 minutes The chance of a rescue for Quebec’s Levinoff-Colbex cull cow packing plant has passed, now that the facility’s equipment has been sold off piecemeal at auction. Provincial investment financing agency Investissement Quebec and other creditors still own the Colbex building and land at St-Cyrille-de-Wendover, in the Centre-du-Quebec region. But the plant’s receivers sold its equipment to a consortium of […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
