Hong Kong Seminars Promote Economical Cuts of US Beef, Pork
Hong Kong Seminars Promote Economical Cuts of US Beef, Pork
With global demand steadily improving, prices for beef and pork are on the rise. While this is good news for the U.S. meat industry, it can also create price-point challenges in certain overseas markets.
To help ensure continued momentum for U.S. beef and pork demand in southern Asia, USMEF just completed two days of seminars in Hong Kong focused on economical, often-underutilized cuts of U.S. beef and pork.
According to Joel Haggard, USMEF senior vice president for the Asia Pacific region, it is important to educate buyers and importers about the quality and value delivered by these cuts. During a period of rising prices, this can be a critical strategy for retaining them as customers of U.S. beef and pork products.
USMEF’s Sabrina Yin provides a cutting demonstration for retail and foodservice representatives in Hong Kong
“One of our key strategies right now is to expose the trade in this region to some new-to-market cuts of both beef and pork,” Haggard explained. “With rising prices, it’s a very opportune time to remind the trade of some of the great, alternative items we have available where the runup in prices has not been as sharp.”
The event consisted of back-to-back afternoon seminars in which several U.S. beef and pork cuts were displayed and sampled by more than 75 local importers, wholesalers, retailers, chefs, restaurant owner-operators and catering companies. It was held at Domani, an upscale Italian restaurant well-known for providing a fine-dining menu. U.S. beef and pork for the cutting and sampling demonstrations were provided by five USMEF member companies.
Pork items featured included blade meat and a pork riblet specification brand new to the region.
The riblet was salted and slow-cooked sous vide - in vacuum-sealed plastic pouches at low temperatures. It was then served cold in thinly-sliced, Vitello Tonnato style.
The event also featured several trimmed cuts of U.S. sow meat.
“Sow meat is in always in demand by our U.S. sausage industry, but in this pricing environment we see some potential export opportunities,” Haggard said. “So we demonstrated some underutilized items here to see what kind of interest we could generate.”
Featured beef items included chuck flap tail, chuck eye roll, flank steak, knuckle, chuck tender, brisket and top sirloin butt. Merchandising and preparation ideas ranged from U.S. beef chuck tender carpaccio to simple items such as top sirloin butt cap meat grilled and thinly sliced. Recognizing the importance of regional demand for shabu-shabu (hot pot) cuts, the seminars also included a self-service hot pot table where sliced chuck eye roll, chuck flap tail, knuckle and pork blade meat were sampled. Attendees could also request flash grilling of the samples for quick tasting.
Product demonstrations were provided by USMEF ASEAN Director Sabrina Yin, a trained chef, and by Domani chefs Michele Bernacchia and Cosimo Taddel. Executive Chef John Wingertsahn, a Culinary Institute of America graduate and corporate chef for El Grande Holding Company, provided new recipe ideas and guidance on effective merchandising concepts. Hong Kong's largest foodservice operators were well-represented, including attendees from Maxim's, m.a.x. concepts, Fairwood Holdings, Cathay Pacific Airways, Mix, Yoshinoya, Ruby Tuesday, the Windy City Group, the Outback Group, the Elite Group, the Eclipse Group and the Tai Hing Group.
USMEF also held separate product cutting and preparation seminars with the sales staff of Angliss Hong Kong Foodservice Limited, one of the territory's principal purveyors of U.S. red meat.
"We were very pleased with the timing of these seminars and with the excellent response we received from the trade,” said USMEF Regional Program Manager John Lam. “With red meat prices rising, they are anxious to see new merchandising ideas. This event really capitalized on that opportunity.”
The seminars are just one part of USMEF’s comprehensive strategy for building further momentum for U.S. exports to southern Asia. According to the weekly USDA/FAS export data, Hong Kong is the region’s growth leader for U.S. beef muscle cuts with exports up 230 percent through April compared to the same period last year. But muscle cut exports have been posting strong growth to all major markets in the region, with Vietnam up 14 percent, Taiwan up 46 percent and the Philippines up 70 percent compared to 2009.
U.S. pork has also been gaining ground in the region this year, with muscle cut exports posting impressive growth in Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore and Hong Kong.
“We are having great success in these markets, but we always have to be mindful of how price shifts can affect our customers,” Haggard explained. “That’s one of the reasons this event was very timely, because we must keep U.S. products front-and-center and be ready to meet changing demands.”
# # #
The U.S. Meat Export Federation (www.USMEF.org) is the trade association responsible for developing international markets for the U.S. red meat industry and is funded by USDA, exporting companies, and the beef, pork, corn and soybean checkoff programs.
For more information, contact Jim Herlihy at jherlihy@usmef.org.
USMEF complies with all equal opportunity, non-discrimination and affirmative action measures applicable to it by contract, government rule or regulation or as otherwise provided by law.
Hong Kong Seminars Promote Economical Cuts of US Beef, Pork
With global demand steadily improving, prices for beef and pork are on the rise. While this is good news for the U.S. meat industry, it can also create price-point challenges in certain overseas markets.
To help ensure continued momentum for U.S. beef and pork demand in southern Asia, USMEF just completed two days of seminars in Hong Kong focused on economical, often-underutilized cuts of U.S. beef and pork.
According to Joel Haggard, USMEF senior vice president for the Asia Pacific region, it is important to educate buyers and importers about the quality and value delivered by these cuts. During a period of rising prices, this can be a critical strategy for retaining them as customers of U.S. beef and pork products.
USMEF’s Sabrina Yin provides a cutting demonstration for retail and foodservice representatives in Hong Kong
“One of our key strategies right now is to expose the trade in this region to some new-to-market cuts of both beef and pork,” Haggard explained. “With rising prices, it’s a very opportune time to remind the trade of some of the great, alternative items we have available where the runup in prices has not been as sharp.”
The event consisted of back-to-back afternoon seminars in which several U.S. beef and pork cuts were displayed and sampled by more than 75 local importers, wholesalers, retailers, chefs, restaurant owner-operators and catering companies. It was held at Domani, an upscale Italian restaurant well-known for providing a fine-dining menu. U.S. beef and pork for the cutting and sampling demonstrations were provided by five USMEF member companies.
Pork items featured included blade meat and a pork riblet specification brand new to the region.
The riblet was salted and slow-cooked sous vide - in vacuum-sealed plastic pouches at low temperatures. It was then served cold in thinly-sliced, Vitello Tonnato style.
The event also featured several trimmed cuts of U.S. sow meat.
“Sow meat is in always in demand by our U.S. sausage industry, but in this pricing environment we see some potential export opportunities,” Haggard said. “So we demonstrated some underutilized items here to see what kind of interest we could generate.”
Featured beef items included chuck flap tail, chuck eye roll, flank steak, knuckle, chuck tender, brisket and top sirloin butt. Merchandising and preparation ideas ranged from U.S. beef chuck tender carpaccio to simple items such as top sirloin butt cap meat grilled and thinly sliced. Recognizing the importance of regional demand for shabu-shabu (hot pot) cuts, the seminars also included a self-service hot pot table where sliced chuck eye roll, chuck flap tail, knuckle and pork blade meat were sampled. Attendees could also request flash grilling of the samples for quick tasting.
Product demonstrations were provided by USMEF ASEAN Director Sabrina Yin, a trained chef, and by Domani chefs Michele Bernacchia and Cosimo Taddel. Executive Chef John Wingertsahn, a Culinary Institute of America graduate and corporate chef for El Grande Holding Company, provided new recipe ideas and guidance on effective merchandising concepts. Hong Kong's largest foodservice operators were well-represented, including attendees from Maxim's, m.a.x. concepts, Fairwood Holdings, Cathay Pacific Airways, Mix, Yoshinoya, Ruby Tuesday, the Windy City Group, the Outback Group, the Elite Group, the Eclipse Group and the Tai Hing Group.
USMEF also held separate product cutting and preparation seminars with the sales staff of Angliss Hong Kong Foodservice Limited, one of the territory's principal purveyors of U.S. red meat.
"We were very pleased with the timing of these seminars and with the excellent response we received from the trade,” said USMEF Regional Program Manager John Lam. “With red meat prices rising, they are anxious to see new merchandising ideas. This event really capitalized on that opportunity.”
The seminars are just one part of USMEF’s comprehensive strategy for building further momentum for U.S. exports to southern Asia. According to the weekly USDA/FAS export data, Hong Kong is the region’s growth leader for U.S. beef muscle cuts with exports up 230 percent through April compared to the same period last year. But muscle cut exports have been posting strong growth to all major markets in the region, with Vietnam up 14 percent, Taiwan up 46 percent and the Philippines up 70 percent compared to 2009.
U.S. pork has also been gaining ground in the region this year, with muscle cut exports posting impressive growth in Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore and Hong Kong.
“We are having great success in these markets, but we always have to be mindful of how price shifts can affect our customers,” Haggard explained. “That’s one of the reasons this event was very timely, because we must keep U.S. products front-and-center and be ready to meet changing demands.”
# # #
The U.S. Meat Export Federation (www.USMEF.org) is the trade association responsible for developing international markets for the U.S. red meat industry and is funded by USDA, exporting companies, and the beef, pork, corn and soybean checkoff programs.
For more information, contact Jim Herlihy at jherlihy@usmef.org.
USMEF complies with all equal opportunity, non-discrimination and affirmative action measures applicable to it by contract, government rule or regulation or as otherwise provided by law.