Consumer Confidence Critical to Beef Rebound

Dr. Walt Prevatt, an economist with the Alabama Cooperative Extension
System, says maintaining domestic consumer confidence is imperative
until the U.S. beef industry regains export partners.

Meanwhile, Japan, the world's largest buyer of U.S. beef , still balks at American and Canadian beef products, claiming that cows from both countries are still vulnerable to a BSE (mad cow disease) outbreak. More than 30 countries shut their borders on U.S. beef last month, folliwng the first recorded American case of BSE. Japan, alone, previously had imported more than $1 billion a year of American beef and $55 million from Canada before imposing the bans.