Saudi Arabia                                

Saudi Arabia                                                                               

U.S. Beef Back on Track in Saudi Arabia

U.S. beef is making a comeback in Saudi Arabia. Although there was no formal ban, the BSE incident in the U.S. caused the Saudi government to halt issuance of U.S. beef import permits. This action caused some concern among retailers in the kingdom.  For example, the Safeway in Saudi Arabia took U.S. beef off its shelves and removed all U.S. beef identifications from the meat area.  Now, however, U.S. beef is back at Safeway. All USMEF posters, both English and Arabic, are back on display and all major U.S. high quality beef cuts are available. Safeway informs USMEF that sales are slowly moving back to normal.

Major hotels and catering services have also returned to serving U.S. beef.  One major caterer advised USMEF last week that its customer, Saudi Airlines, asked them to stop supplying them with Australian meat and instead return to U.S. beef.

In fact, during the first three months of this year, Saudi Arabia’s imports of high quality beef from the U.S. reached about $2.3 million, a drop of 26 percent from March 2003, but considering the circumstances, an encouraging figure.

Saudi Arabia                                                                               

U.S. Beef Back on Track in Saudi Arabia

U.S. beef is making a comeback in Saudi Arabia. Although there was no formal ban, the BSE incident in the U.S. caused the Saudi government to halt issuance of U.S. beef import permits. This action caused some concern among retailers in the kingdom.  For example, the Safeway in Saudi Arabia took U.S. beef off its shelves and removed all U.S. beef identifications from the meat area.  Now, however, U.S. beef is back at Safeway. All USMEF posters, both English and Arabic, are back on display and all major U.S. high quality beef cuts are available. Safeway informs USMEF that sales are slowly moving back to normal.

Major hotels and catering services have also returned to serving U.S. beef.  One major caterer advised USMEF last week that its customer, Saudi Airlines, asked them to stop supplying them with Australian meat and instead return to U.S. beef.

In fact, during the first three months of this year, Saudi Arabia’s imports of high quality beef from the U.S. reached about $2.3 million, a drop of 26 percent from March 2003, but considering the circumstances, an encouraging figure.