US Bison Producers Gain Access to EU and Australian Markets

In addition, Australia announced the lifting of restrictions on American bison, first introduced in 2003.

The trade deal with the European Union has long been fought for by American producers, said Jim Matheson, executive director of the National Bison Producers Association.

“The EU has been our main target for a number of years now,” he explained. “I would say we’ve been pushing for tariffs and customs duties on our products coming in there for 12 to 15 years now. And of course, last week we heard that they were finally going to lift the tariffs on bison.”

Under the new legislation, the European Union will eliminate its current 20% tariff on American bison, under an annual tariff-rate quota of 3,000 tons of bison meat.

Matheson noted that American bison do not pose a threat to European farmers, since they are bred only in the United States and Canada.

Canada has had a trade agreement with Europe for several years that allows the country to import bison at zero duty, "which obviously puts us at a disadvantage compared to other states," Matheson added.

Matheson hopes the UK will follow suit and introduce similar export duty breaks.

U.S. bison producers remain optimistic about the future of the trade, especially after Australia's surprise announcement that it would lift restrictions that have been in place for more than two decades.

Australia banned imports of American bison and beef after bovine spongiform encephalopathy was found in a dairy cow in Washington state in 2003 .

Now, Matheson sees positive signs of key Asian markets opening up for American bison, including Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

“I hope we can get access to Japan,” he said. “We are trying to do that again. We have sent inspectors from Japan to the U.S. to do inspections at some of our bison processing plants. Everything is going according to plan.”