Sri Lankan Officials Get In-depth Look at U.S. Meat Industry
The Sri Lankan delegation is pictured with Superior Farms General Manager James Teitscheid (second from right), who provided them with a tour of the company’s lamb processing operation in Denver
The island nation of Sri Lanka recently reopened to U.S. beef for the first time since 2003, when the market closed due to BSE. Last week a team of three Sri Lankan veterinary officials received a firsthand look at all aspects of the U.S. meat industry as part of the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service’s Cochran Fellowship Program.
Dr. Tiskumarage Aruni Tiskumara, Dr. Shirani Lakshami Jayasinghe and Dr. Kithsiri Lokubalasuriyage Don are with Sri Lanka’s Central Department of Animal Production and Health, which is a division of the Ministry of Livestock Development. At the Port of Baltimore, the group received an overview of agricultural container inspections, emergency action notifications and other regulatory functions. At the USDA-APHIS National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, presentations were provided by heads of the diagnostic virology laboratory, the diagnostic bacteriology laboratory and the pathology laboratory.
Dr. Tiskumara, who headed the delegation, said the detailed information the team received gives her confidence in the safety and quality of U.S. meat products.
“I am so happy that we had the opportunity to get such a close look at the systems that produce quality meat here in the United States, because our responsibility is regulation of imports and exports in Sri Lanka,” she explained. “We had good exposure to all of the systems the industry has adopted, and we are quite satisfied with the processing regulations and the biosecurity aspects as well.”
The officials’ next stop was northeastern Nebraska, where they had an opportunity to visit both a cow-calf operation (Volk Farms/J&C Simmentals) and a commercial feedlot (Rhea Cattle Company). The feedlot tour was a new experience for Dr. Tiskumara.
“We do not have a commercialized beef industry in Sri Lanka, so this was the first time we’ve had an opportunity to visit such a large operation,” she said.
Dr. Tiskumara noted that the negligible risk designation for BSE from the World Organization for Animal Health, which the United States received in May 2013, was a key factor in Sri Lanka’s decision to reopen the market to U.S. beef.
“Until the United States got the negligible risk status, we were not interested in U.S. beef,” she explained. “But now that you have negligible risk status, technically there is no reason why we should not import beef from the U.S.A.”
At the Greater Omaha Packing Co. plant in Omaha, Neb., the delegation received an explanation of ante-mortem and post-mortem inspection procedures, as well as microbiological intervention steps used by the plant. The USDA grading inspection process was also demonstrated.
At the Hormel plant in Fremont, Neb., the group made its first-ever visit to a high-volume pork plant. The group also visited Halal Transactions of Omaha for an explanation of the halal certification process.
The team concluded its U.S. tour in Colorado, where it toured the Superior Farms lamb processing facility in Denver. While Sri Lanka is not yet open to U.S. lamb, Dr. Tiskumara said she believes there is potential for both U.S. beef and lamb in Sri Lanka’s rapidly growing tourism and hospitality industries.
After a stop at the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s Animal Health Division in Lakewood, the group visited USMEF’s Denver headquarters. Greg Hanes, assistant vice president for international marketing and programs, presented information on USMEF’s global operations and its strategies for differentiating U.S. red meat. Technical Services manager Travis Arp provided an overview of the red meat supply chain and BSE control measures used in beef production.
About Sri Lanka:
Located off the southeastern coast of India, Sri Lanka has a population of more than 20 million. Until 2009, Sri Lanka was plagued by civil war and ongoing political conflict. The country was also devastated by a deadly tsunami in 2004, which killed more than 30,000 people and displaced about 1.5 million. Recently Sri Lankans have enjoyed a much more peaceful existence, which has led to economic growth and a revitalized tourism sector. Sri Lanka’s nominal GDP is estimated to be $60 billion, with annual GDP growth averaging about 7.5 percent over the past four years.
Sri Lanka’s largest city is Colombo, with a population of about 750,000 within the city limits and 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. While visiting the market in 2012, USMEF Senior Vice President for the Asia Pacific Joel Haggard noted that Colombo’s retail sector is growing rapidly but is sorely in need of a wider range of products.
“Modern supermarket chains such as Keells and Cargills are operating in Sri Lanka but rely mostly on domestic products,” Haggard said. “There are certainly growth opportunities in this sector for a wide range of U.S. products, including red meat.”
But Haggard believes the biggest opportunity in Sri Lanka lies in that nation’s efforts to bolster tourism, which could make the hospitality sector a promising outlet for U.S. beef, pork and lamb.
“Sri Lanka has ambitious plans to make it onto the ‘A list’ of Asian tourist destinations, in line with Bali and several locations in Thailand,” he said.