The U.S. exported $4.08 billion of beef in 2010, topping the record set in 2003 before an outbreak of mad cow disease sapped shipments, the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board said.
The value of U.S. beef exports last year jumped 32 percent from 2009, when the economic downturn cut demand, the Centennial- based producer group said Tuesday in a statement on its website.
Export values plunged 79 percent from a record $3.856 billion in 2003 to $809 million in 2004 after countries including Japan and South Korea halted U.S. beef imports following the discovery in December 2003 of a cow in Washington state with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, according to data from the U.S. Meat Export Federation. Bloomberg News; Craig F. Walker photo, The Denver Post
