27 April 2007

2 minute read

North America

Bison industry marketing leaders from the United States and Canada gathered here this week to analyze the long-term market growth trends and to begin mapping a strategy to stimulate new production from bison ranchers.

The meeting was called jointly by the U.S. National Bison Association and the Canadian Bison Association to address growing concern among marketers that consumer demand may begin to outpace the supply of market-ready bison in the near future. The 24 marketers participating in the roundtable discussion this week agreed that several steps are needed to help stimulate production and meet anticipated growth of more than 10 percent annual growth in bison meat consumption.

Despite the growing global demand for bison, production at the ranch level has not been increasing significantly. Producers of all scale are impacted by higher costs of production resulting from drought, feed costs, infrastructure, and other factors. The marketers meeting in Denver identified several priorities to help increase the profitability at all stages of the industry by capturing more value per animal, and by reducing some of the regulatory costs including impediments to trade.

Topping the marketers' lists of concern was addressing the current regulatory environment that forces the bison industry to pay the costs of federal inspection at USDA regulated processing facilities. The Federal Meat Inspection Act requires bison producers to pay for federal inspection. Producers of beef, pork, poultry, and seafood receive federal inspection services at no cost. The user-fees borne by the bison industry add up to $75 per head in additional expense.