Ranchers bullish on beef sales to Vietnam

A collaboration between an Elbert County ranch, the Greeley-based East Colorado Small Business Development Center and the state of Colorado could help open some lucrative Asian markets for Weld County’s beef cattle industry.

The initial outreach has been to Vietnam, said Craig Curl, an Elbert County-based business consultant for the East Colorado SBDC. Vietnam, Thailand and Burma (also known as Myanmar) are part of the world’s fastest developing region, accounting for about 221 million of Southeast Asia’s population. By 2019, Vietnam had risen to ninth place in the world for beef imports, accounting for $154 billion a year or 3.1% of…