Japan Briefing for USMEF Officers, Leadership
Japan Briefing for USMEF Officers, Leadership
Groups of Japanese journalists and homemakers each provided insights on the public sentiment in this key export market for a visiting group of USMEF elected officers and members of USMEF’s management team in the past two days in Tokyo.
The USMEF team included Chairman Jon Caspers, a pork producer from Swaledale, Iowa; Chair-elect Jim Peterson, a beef producer from Buffalo, Mont.; Vice-chair Keith Miller, a farmer-stockman from Great Bend, Kan.; and several members of USMEF’s management team including President and CEO Philip Seng, Senior Vice President Asia-Pacific Joel Haggard, and Director of Export Services Kevin Smith. They met Wednesday night with members of USMEF’s Tokyo staff and six Japanese journalists to get their insights on that nation’s recent national election.
Today, the USMEF team participated in a panel discussion with a half-dozen Japanese housewives who shared their families’ opinions on U.S. beef and pork and how they have developed a new appreciation for U.S. red meat.
The Wednesday evening gathering at Tokyo’s venerable five-star Hotel Okura opened with the hotel chefs debuting three unique new U.S. pork recipes that were developed in a competition among the hotel’s own chef team. The new recipes are being added to the menu at the hotel’s restaurants in the coming weeks.
At the meal, six Japanese print and broadcast journalists met with USMEF’s management team and officers to provide their perspective on the Democratic Party of Japan’s (DPJ) victory over the Liberal Democratic Party.
Following the briefing, Vice-chair Miller echoed the sentiments of USMEF’s leadership: “Our biggest concern with the new leadership in Japan is the unknown – we don’t know who we will be dealing with as we look toward expanding access for U.S. beef. However, we look forward to working with the new administration, and we need to enter into these discussions with a positive approach.”
After offering their perspectives on the political change, the journalists quizzed the USMEF representatives about their views on the new political developments, including the DPJ’s stated interest in seeing a traceability system put in place for all beef products in Japan, foreign as well as domestic.
“All of my cattle are electronically traceable and have been for five years,” Chairman-elect Peterson told the journalists, although he noted that the U.S. beef industry is not yet prepared to implement a uniform industry-wide traceability program. “The United States has an excellent food safety system. We just need the transparency to validate it.”
View from Japanese consumers
The USMEF team received a completely different view on the Japan market from a panel of six homemakers, who are part of a group that periodically consults with the consumer marketing team at USMEF-Tokyo. The women, all married with one or two children between ages 8 and 17, offered their insights on a wide range of topics including meat purchasing habits, the credibility of public officials’ statements on food safety, product traceability, their favorite beef and pork dishes, the H1N1 flu virus, cloning and information that influences their buying decisions at the point of purchase.
The homemakers, each of whom is the primary or only grocery shopper in the family, expressed a strong interest in ensuring that their families eat food they believe to be “safe.” When quizzed about countries they view to be the source of safe and unsafe food, each singled out China – the producer of several products involved in high-profile product recalls in Japan – as the source of the most unsafe food. Among foreign food producers, two women cited the United States as the source of the safest foods while Britain, Germany, the European Union and Scandinavia each received one vote.
The panelists also expressed interest in varying levels of traceability. Some only are concerned about the ability to identify the country of origin, while others want to have the ability to have products traced back to the source “for when it’s needed.”
The Internet and television were cited as the panelists’ primary sources of information. Most indicated that they would be more likely to trust their own research and multiple media outlets – assuming their statements don’t contradict one another – rather than government statements regarding food safety.
“I don’t trust government,” said one panelist, while another added that changes in government policies on food safety are “unpredictable.”
Each of the housewives revealed that she had at one time favored domestic red meat over U.S. beef and pork before joining the USMEF panel and learning about the U.S. products. Since then, they have changed their views, bringing many of their friends and family with them.
“My family table has been wonderful since grain-fed U.S. beef came back into the market,” commented one panelist. “Grass-fed beef has a smell to it.”
While several panelists admitted that they refrained from purchasing pork – if only for a few days while they researched the issue – during the recent H1N1 flu scare, another panelist showed no hesitation. “It would have been lonely at my table without pork,” she said. “My husband loves U.S. pork.”
# # #
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.
Japan Briefing for USMEF Officers, Leadership
Groups of Japanese journalists and homemakers each provided insights on the public sentiment in this key export market for a visiting group of USMEF elected officers and members of USMEF’s management team in the past two days in Tokyo.
The USMEF team included Chairman Jon Caspers, a pork producer from Swaledale, Iowa; Chair-elect Jim Peterson, a beef producer from Buffalo, Mont.; Vice-chair Keith Miller, a farmer-stockman from Great Bend, Kan.; and several members of USMEF’s management team including President and CEO Philip Seng, Senior Vice President Asia-Pacific Joel Haggard, and Director of Export Services Kevin Smith. They met Wednesday night with members of USMEF’s Tokyo staff and six Japanese journalists to get their insights on that nation’s recent national election.
Today, the USMEF team participated in a panel discussion with a half-dozen Japanese housewives who shared their families’ opinions on U.S. beef and pork and how they have developed a new appreciation for U.S. red meat.
The Wednesday evening gathering at Tokyo’s venerable five-star Hotel Okura opened with the hotel chefs debuting three unique new U.S. pork recipes that were developed in a competition among the hotel’s own chef team. The new recipes are being added to the menu at the hotel’s restaurants in the coming weeks.
At the meal, six Japanese print and broadcast journalists met with USMEF’s management team and officers to provide their perspective on the Democratic Party of Japan’s (DPJ) victory over the Liberal Democratic Party.
Following the briefing, Vice-chair Miller echoed the sentiments of USMEF’s leadership: “Our biggest concern with the new leadership in Japan is the unknown – we don’t know who we will be dealing with as we look toward expanding access for U.S. beef. However, we look forward to working with the new administration, and we need to enter into these discussions with a positive approach.”
After offering their perspectives on the political change, the journalists quizzed the USMEF representatives about their views on the new political developments, including the DPJ’s stated interest in seeing a traceability system put in place for all beef products in Japan, foreign as well as domestic.
“All of my cattle are electronically traceable and have been for five years,” Chairman-elect Peterson told the journalists, although he noted that the U.S. beef industry is not yet prepared to implement a uniform industry-wide traceability program. “The United States has an excellent food safety system. We just need the transparency to validate it.”
View from Japanese consumers
The USMEF team received a completely different view on the Japan market from a panel of six homemakers, who are part of a group that periodically consults with the consumer marketing team at USMEF-Tokyo. The women, all married with one or two children between ages 8 and 17, offered their insights on a wide range of topics including meat purchasing habits, the credibility of public officials’ statements on food safety, product traceability, their favorite beef and pork dishes, the H1N1 flu virus, cloning and information that influences their buying decisions at the point of purchase.
The homemakers, each of whom is the primary or only grocery shopper in the family, expressed a strong interest in ensuring that their families eat food they believe to be “safe.” When quizzed about countries they view to be the source of safe and unsafe food, each singled out China – the producer of several products involved in high-profile product recalls in Japan – as the source of the most unsafe food. Among foreign food producers, two women cited the United States as the source of the safest foods while Britain, Germany, the European Union and Scandinavia each received one vote.
The panelists also expressed interest in varying levels of traceability. Some only are concerned about the ability to identify the country of origin, while others want to have the ability to have products traced back to the source “for when it’s needed.”
The Internet and television were cited as the panelists’ primary sources of information. Most indicated that they would be more likely to trust their own research and multiple media outlets – assuming their statements don’t contradict one another – rather than government statements regarding food safety.
“I don’t trust government,” said one panelist, while another added that changes in government policies on food safety are “unpredictable.”
Each of the housewives revealed that she had at one time favored domestic red meat over U.S. beef and pork before joining the USMEF panel and learning about the U.S. products. Since then, they have changed their views, bringing many of their friends and family with them.
“My family table has been wonderful since grain-fed U.S. beef came back into the market,” commented one panelist. “Grass-fed beef has a smell to it.”
While several panelists admitted that they refrained from purchasing pork – if only for a few days while they researched the issue – during the recent H1N1 flu scare, another panelist showed no hesitation. “It would have been lonely at my table without pork,” she said. “My husband loves U.S. pork.”
# # #
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.