By ED MERRIMAN

Baker City Herald

Oregon Agriculture Director Katy Coba led a western states trade delegation attending Tuesday’s grand opening of the 20-acre Zhuhai logistics center in China where imported and exported food will be tested.

andquot;At this facility, U.S. food products will be tested and certified for import to China. Chinese food products will be tested and certified for export to the U.S.,andquot; Coba said.

andquot;Oregon can greatly benefit by being a part of something that will be considered the place to go in China for a systematic, routine and predictable way to get products into this rapidly developing market.andquot;

The 800,000 square-foot facility is located along the Pearl River, across from Hong Kong.

Coba led a 21-member U.S. delegation, including state agriculture directors and marketing officials from Washington, California, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Hawaii and other states.

Through its Export Certification Program, the Oregon Department of Agriculture has agreements to test and certify Oregon and United States food and agricultural products in several key export markets, including Japan, Korea and Taiwan. China had not been on that list. With the installation of laboratory testing equipment in the new Zhuhai logistics center, testing and certification can be completed in China identical to the testing done at the ODA’s facilities in Portland, the ODA reported.

Dual testing at the Zhuhai logistics center lab and the ODA’s lab in Portland is expected to lead to greater food safety assurance, which ODA officials are hoping will open the door to greater exports of the more than 200 different types of Oregon-grown foods, from fruits, nuts and vegetables to wheat, potatoes, beef and others.

andquot;This is a tremendous opportunity. China’s economy is growing up to 20 percent per year, incomes are increasing as is the interest and ability of the Chinese to buy our products,andquot; said Dalton Hobbs, ODA assistant director, who is largely responsible for advancing the logistics center concept.

Hobbs said China can’t meet its internal food demands with its own agricultural production, including beef the No. 1 agricultural commodity exported from Baker County.

andquot;When it comes to grain-fed beef, when it comes to specialty wines, when it comes to a number of value-added products we produce in the west, the U.S. will play a very important future role in meeting the consumer demands of a growing middle class in China,andquot; Hobbs said.

Connie Hatfield, a co-founder of Country Natural Beef, said she’s not sure how much the new logistics center in China will help open markets for Oregon-grown beef in China, considering the ODA’s Export Certification Lab in Portland and the approved testing protocol agreements with Japan, Taiwan and Korea have not provided reliable market access for Oregon-grown beef to those countries.

She said the all natural, hormone- and antibiotic-free beef grown by 120 Country Natural Beef ranchers in Oregon and other Western states is the type preferred by officials of those Pacific Rim countries.

andquot;We are sitting right there with the products those countries want,andquot; Hatfield said.

Don Hansen, Oregon’s state veterinarian, said much of the opposition in Pacific Rim countries and elsewhere to beef imported from the United States stems from the first U.S. cases of mad cow disease discovered five years ago in a couple of downer dairy cows that had been imported from Canada by dairies in Washington State.

Hansen said mad cow disease was traced to feeding ruminant feed (feed containing animal proteins called prions), which was banned more than five years ago and has not been found in any cattle in the United States born 30 months or more after ruminant feed was banned in the United States and Canada.

andquot;There has never been a case of mad cow disease in Oregon,andquot; Hansen said.

A massive testing program in which more than 400,000 head of cattle with downer cow symptoms across the United States were tested, and andquot;in the whole time they did that they found twoandquot; animals that tested positive for mad cow disease.

Hansen said testing for mad cow disease is done in separate labs and is not part of Oregon’s import-export certification lab in Portland or at the new logistics center in China, so those facilities would not likely have an effect on any beef export restrictions stemming from concerns about mad cow disease.

Cheryl Martin, president of the Baker County CattleWomen said overall she believes cooperation between the ODA and the Chinese government in developing and operating the logistics center will have a positive impact in the long run for cattle producers in Oregon and in Baker County.

andquot;It sounds positive to me,andquot; Martin said. andquot;China is one country we haven’t been involved much with on beef exports.

andquot;I think once they establish this trust bond with us and see the quality of what we produce, it will be a positive thing,andquot; Martin said.

andquot;I think it will be a way for China to find out the quality of our products, especially our high quality beef,andquot; Martin said. andquot;Once you taste our beef, you want it.andquot;

Baker County ranks third in the state for production of cattle and calves at 92,000, behind Malheur County with 193,000 and Harney County with 110,000.

In the category of beef cows with calves, Baker County ranks fourth with 44,000 head, behind Harney (66,000), Malheur (58,000) and Lake (45,000).