Caribbean Buyers Impressed with All Aspects of U.S. Meat Industry
Published: Mar 30, 2011
Nine key red meat buyers from the Caribbean region recently visited the United States to get a USMEF “farm to fork” overview of the U.S. beef and pork industries. The group came away strong advocates of U.S. red meat, promising even more growth for one of the fastest growing regions for our beef and pork exports.
“We’ve been bringing in meat from South America, Australia and even from Canada, but because of our own ignorance in certain areas we have not explored U.S. meat to the extent that we should have,” said Vernon Persad, owner of eight Persad’s “D” Food King grocery stores in Trinidad, the island’s largest family-owned grocery chain. He is also president of the 300-member Supermarkets Association of Trinidad and Tobago.
“USMEF has really afforded us an eye-opening experience. It was so important to me to see the humanity with which the animals are treated, and also to see the standards and quality controls that are in place with the U.S. packers as well as the feedlots and breeding farms. It’s just a total quality system that reaches back even before the time the animals are bred, all the way to the time they are packed into the container for export.”
The Caribbean has developed into a very strong market for U.S. beef and pork exports. In 2010, beef exports to the region totaled nearly 25,000 metric tons valued at $103 million – a 23 percent increase in volume and a 28 percent increase in value over the previous year. Pork exports also achieved robust growth, increasing 6 percent in volume (to nearly 43,000 metric tons) and 19 percent in value (to $92.6 million). Over the past five years, annual export value to the Caribbean has increased by 75 percent for U.S. beef and 90 percent for U.S. pork.
Critical to this rapid growth rate has been the expansion of U.S. beef and pork’s presence beyond the high-end tourism and foodservice industries and into the retail meat case.
“Obviously we want to capture as much business as we can from the Caribbean’s resort hotels and high-end restaurants, because there’s a terrific return there,” said Elizabeth Wunderlich, USMEF Caribbean consultant. “But there is far more to the Caribbean than just the tourism industry. The retail sector is becoming more modern and sophisticated, and buyers are looking for high-quality fresh meat offerings that will appeal to the local population. Capitalizing on those opportunities for U.S. beef and pork is what made this retail team visit so important.”
“We’ve been bringing in meat from South America, Australia and even from Canada, but because of our own ignorance in certain areas we have not explored U.S. meat to the extent that we should have,” said Vernon Persad, owner of eight Persad’s “D” Food King grocery stores in Trinidad, the island’s largest family-owned grocery chain. He is also president of the 300-member Supermarkets Association of Trinidad and Tobago.
“USMEF has really afforded us an eye-opening experience. It was so important to me to see the humanity with which the animals are treated, and also to see the standards and quality controls that are in place with the U.S. packers as well as the feedlots and breeding farms. It’s just a total quality system that reaches back even before the time the animals are bred, all the way to the time they are packed into the container for export.”
The Caribbean has developed into a very strong market for U.S. beef and pork exports. In 2010, beef exports to the region totaled nearly 25,000 metric tons valued at $103 million – a 23 percent increase in volume and a 28 percent increase in value over the previous year. Pork exports also achieved robust growth, increasing 6 percent in volume (to nearly 43,000 metric tons) and 19 percent in value (to $92.6 million). Over the past five years, annual export value to the Caribbean has increased by 75 percent for U.S. beef and 90 percent for U.S. pork.
Critical to this rapid growth rate has been the expansion of U.S. beef and pork’s presence beyond the high-end tourism and foodservice industries and into the retail meat case.
“Obviously we want to capture as much business as we can from the Caribbean’s resort hotels and high-end restaurants, because there’s a terrific return there,” said Elizabeth Wunderlich, USMEF Caribbean consultant. “But there is far more to the Caribbean than just the tourism industry. The retail sector is becoming more modern and sophisticated, and buyers are looking for high-quality fresh meat offerings that will appeal to the local population. Capitalizing on those opportunities for U.S. beef and pork is what made this retail team visit so important.”
The team of buyers experienced every segment of U.S. meat production and processing, visiting a cattle ranch and feedlot, and beef and pork processing plants in Texas and Oklahoma. They also took part in beef and pork cutting demonstrations that introduced them to newly developed cuts and new merchandising ideas, participated in a comprehensive “Beef and Pork 101” course at West Texas A&M University and attended the 2011 Annual Meat Conference in Dallas.
In both Dallas and Amarillo, a dinner reception with USMEF members and local producers afforded the team a chance to meet people directly involved in the U.S. meat quality system. The program was made possible through support from the USDA Market Access Program (MAP) and the Beef Checkoff and Pork Checkoff programs.
Peterson Dupervil is a meat buyer for Sawyer’s Food Market in the Bahamas. While Sawyer’s already imports U.S. beef and pork, Dupervil said the trade visit offered many new learning opportunities that will be very beneficial to his company.
“We import U.S. beef – both frozen and fresh – as well as fresh pork shoulder, the center-cut pork chop and the boneless pork loin – we do all that,” he said. “But this has really been a great opportunity for me, especially when we toured the plants and had the cutting demonstrations, to learn all about different cuts. It was really amazing, and I learned plenty.”
Persad was extremely impressed with the care and dedication he observed at U.S. livestock operations and with the quality products available from U.S. processors. As a result of the visit, Persad plans to become a strong advocate for bringing more U.S. beef and pork into Trinidad and Tobago.
“Quality is what we are looking to deliver to our customers, and that is what we saw here,” he said. “That is the message we are going to take back to Trinidad and Tobago. We will be working on a significant campaign now to take this U.S. meat experience back with us and ensure the development of the export market.”
In addition to Persad and Dupervil, retail buyers also participated from Aruba, the Cayman Islands, Curaçao, Dominica, Jamaica and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
“This retail team visit was very successful from an educational standpoint, and in delivering a positive image of our industry to these key buyers,” Wunderlich said. “It was really a total team effort, and I can’t thank our industry partners in Texas and Oklahoma enough for their participation and tremendous hospitality.”
In both Dallas and Amarillo, a dinner reception with USMEF members and local producers afforded the team a chance to meet people directly involved in the U.S. meat quality system. The program was made possible through support from the USDA Market Access Program (MAP) and the Beef Checkoff and Pork Checkoff programs.
Peterson Dupervil is a meat buyer for Sawyer’s Food Market in the Bahamas. While Sawyer’s already imports U.S. beef and pork, Dupervil said the trade visit offered many new learning opportunities that will be very beneficial to his company.
“We import U.S. beef – both frozen and fresh – as well as fresh pork shoulder, the center-cut pork chop and the boneless pork loin – we do all that,” he said. “But this has really been a great opportunity for me, especially when we toured the plants and had the cutting demonstrations, to learn all about different cuts. It was really amazing, and I learned plenty.”
Persad was extremely impressed with the care and dedication he observed at U.S. livestock operations and with the quality products available from U.S. processors. As a result of the visit, Persad plans to become a strong advocate for bringing more U.S. beef and pork into Trinidad and Tobago.
“Quality is what we are looking to deliver to our customers, and that is what we saw here,” he said. “That is the message we are going to take back to Trinidad and Tobago. We will be working on a significant campaign now to take this U.S. meat experience back with us and ensure the development of the export market.”
In addition to Persad and Dupervil, retail buyers also participated from Aruba, the Cayman Islands, Curaçao, Dominica, Jamaica and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
“This retail team visit was very successful from an educational standpoint, and in delivering a positive image of our industry to these key buyers,” Wunderlich said. “It was really a total team effort, and I can’t thank our industry partners in Texas and Oklahoma enough for their participation and tremendous hospitality.”