With support from the National Pork Board and the Beef Checkoff Program, U.S. Meat Export Federation recently joined USDA staff in meetings with Colombian officials designed to build a better understanding of the industry both in the U.S. and Colombia. The seminar was born out of a string of challenges that have popped up for exporters sending U.S. red meat to Colombia, including the country’s decision to ban imports of beef from states where highly pathogenic avian influenza has been detected in dairy cows.

USMEF Director of Export Services Courtney Heller says U.S. officials gave a farm-to-fork view of the U.S. livestock industry, explaining the extensive safeguards that are in place to ensure food safety in the U.S. – including mandatory Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Point requirements. Participants included regulatory officials, port inspectors and others involved in the import process.

"USMEF Columbia, USMEF Denver and the Foreign Ag Service post in Bogota came together with an idea to build relationships and really improve understanding of how both markets work, particularly in relation to importing U.S. beef and pork into Columbia," says Heller. "We had some outstanding technical trade issues that we felt that would probably be resolved if we just really met and discussed how the industry worked. In that time period as we were arranging this seminar, high path avian influenza was found in some of our dairy cattle, and Colombia started to ban U.S. beef if that high path avian influenza was found in dairy cattle in that state. So this program evolved into something that would also cover addressing that trade barrier, in addition to just the overall relationship building efforts that we had in mind."

Both sides have expressed interest in continuing the seminar on an annual basis.

"The difference between Colombia and the U.S. is that Colombia has very few federally inspected plants, and in our country almost every, and especially every large plant, is federally inspected. And the infrastructure is very large and very effective," Heller says. "Another key difference between our industries is HACCP is not mandatory in many countries, including Colombia, but in the U.S., if you're federally inspected, every facility is mandatorily using HACCP as part of their day-to-day operations."

Colombia is a major destination for U.S. pork, with exports racing to record pace in 2024. Through the first half of the year, shipments jumped 33% from a year ago to nearly 57,000 metric tons, while value soared 44% to $157.4 million. Beef exports to Colombia posted a strong first quarter but have struggled since HPAI-related restrictions were imposed in April. First-half beef exports fell 22% year-over-year to 2,224 metric tons, valued at $13.4 million (down 13%).