Trade resumption is positive, but don't expect it to move the market. In some ways, speculation about when Japanese beef trade would resume has had more impact on price than when the market actually opened. "Trade resumption has been supportive to prices, but it hasn't necessarily moved them much higher," says Mike Miller, Cattle-Fax director of research and education. For one thing, best-case projections for beef exports to Japan this year are too low to push the market fundamentally. The U.S. MeatExport Federation (USMEF), for example, projects 2006 exports will be around 100,000 metric tons (220 million Ibs.).
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