Optimistic Outlook for U.S. Red Meat at Taiwan's Largest Food Show

Joel Haggard, the U.S. Meat Export Federation's (USMEF) Hong Kong-based senior vice president for the Asia Pacific, just returned from Taiwan where he participated in Food Taipei, Taiwan's largest food trade show. He shares observations from this rapidly growing market for U.S. red meat in the attached audio report.

Haggard notes that while Taiwan is a relatively small market for U.S. pork, exports are surging in 2019. Through April, U.S. pork shipments to Taiwan totaled 8,819 metric tons (mt), up 80% from the same period last year, while value increased 55% to $19.3 million. U.S. lamb is fairly new to the Taiwanese market, having regained access in 2016. USMEF has outreach efforts planned this fall for chefs and other foodservice professionals interested in U.S. lamb.

Taiwan is a tremendous destination for U.S. beef, with exports in 2018 topping $500 million for the first time. At nearly 60,000 mt valued at $550 million, beef exports to Taiwan nearly doubled in volume and more than doubled in value over a period of just five years. Haggard sees excellent opportunities for future growth in Taiwan, as U.S. beef's presence continues to expand in both the restaurant and retail sectors.

Transcript

Joe Schuele: U.S. Meat Export Federation senior vice president for the Asia Pacific, Joel Haggard, was just in Taiwan for Food Taipei, the country’s largest food trade show. He discusses this rapidly growing market for U.S. red meat in this USMEF report:

Joel Haggard: Last week Taipei hosted its annual food trade exhibition. The show’s a good place to swap stories with the trade on the overall market situation. We at the U.S. Meat Export Federation have a busy second half planned for this year. We’ve added dozens of new restaurants to our loyalty marketing campaign, and we plan on conducting another push for U.S. lamb in the fall. On the pork side we will set up a three-week long American rib takeaway kiosk popup store at one of Taipei’s busiest train stations. Taiwan remains a small market for U.S. pork but shipments for the first four months of this year are up 80% on the pace of a year ago totaling about eight and a half thousand tonnes.

Joe Schuele: Taiwan is already a half billion dollar market for U.S. beef and given the trends in both the restaurant and retail sectors, Haggard is optimistic about further growth:

Joel Haggard:Steak offerings abound, ranging from low-cost sizzling platter outdoor steak restaurants and night markets to the highest end international brands. For example Smith and Malensky opened its first outlet outside the United States earlier this year and is doing incredible business but even more prominent than the steak restaurants are the multitude of Korean barbecue so-called yakiniku choices along with Taipei’s wide range of hot pot outlets, and on the retail side Costco is a big operator in Taiwan merchandising beef very much like it does in the U.S. with very large beef displays with their success in Taiwan driving other retailers to up their games in terms of beef merchandising. So this year Carrefour one of the earliest in of the foreign retailers just established its first Certified Angus Beef® merchandizing areas in ten of their stores. That represents a very visible upgrade to that chain’s featuring of U.S. beef.

Joe Schuele: For more information, please visit USMEF.org. For the U.S. Meat Export Federation, I’m Joe Schuele.