Iowa farmers are reacting with optimism after today’s announcement China is lifting its ban on U.S. pork. Tim Bierman, a pork producer from Larrabee and president of the National Pork Board, says it’s very encouraging. “It’s great news that China does intend to open the U.S. market to pork going into China,” Bierman says.
“It’s a great opportunity for us here in the future when it actually does open up.” He says it’ll mean tremendous financial gains for Iowa’s pork industry, as we’re the nation’s number-one producer of pork.
He says Iowa averaged some $23.7 million in pork products to China in each of the past several years. In all, Bierman says Iowa exports $520 million worth of pork annually to all countries. China cut U.S. pork off earlier this year due to unfounded fears about H1N1 flu, which some refer to as “swine flu.”
Contributed by Dan Skelton, KICD, Spencer