News & Events | Ukrainian Government Looking to Buy U.S. Pork

Ukrainian Government Looking to Buy U.S. Pork

The Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) in Ukraine informed USMEF Manager Moscow & CIS Countries Galina Kochubeeva that the Ukrainian State Committee of the State Reserves is ready to consider an order for 3,000-5,000 metric tons of pork (carcasses, fore ends, cuts) from the United States. Commercial offers should be sent to the deputy director of the Ukrainian State Committee of the State Reserves Mr. Vladimir Syutnik. His telephone number is +38-044-234-35-81 and his email address is v_sytnyk@ukr.net.

Bid should be break bulk, CIF Odessa.

For more information, contact:

Galina Kochubeeva
USMEF Manager Moscow & CIS Countries
011-7-495-544-93-87
gkochubeeva@usmef.org

South Korean Ministry Issues COOL Guidelines

South Korea’s agriculture ministry issued country-of-origin labeling guidelines for beef last week. Country-of-origin labeling is mandatory in South Korea’s restaurants, and the ministry announced it would strengthen the system to ensure the rules are followed and increase its enforcement team from 600 to 1,000. The ministry also is launching a “Citizens Surveillance Organization for Checking Country-of-Origin Labeling at Restaurants” and a national surveillance system including a Web site. People who report false country-of-origin labeling at restaurants will be eligible for a reward of up to 2 million won (about $2,000).

Previously, country-of-origin labeling was mandatory only at medium- and large-sized establishments, but it is now required at all restaurants. It applies also in institutional restaurants in schools, hospitals and employee cafeterias.

Branded Products Promotion Program Fosters Sales of $42 Million

U.S. red meat companies taking advantage of the USDA’s Branded Products Promotion Program – administered through USMEF – rang up $42,525,877 in sales of U.S. beef and pork to international buyers in fiscal year 2007. The companies exceeded their goals — $34,391,000 — by 24 percent over their projected sales and raised their red meat export sales from $37.1 million in 2006.

The Branded Products Promotion Program has had success in helping smaller companies gain entry to targeted export markets and establish their branded products in a variety of international markets. These companies use their own money, leveraged with matching funds from the program, to develop export markets for U.S. beef, pork or lamb exports. The companies involved in this year’s program exported pork and beef to markets that included Mexico, Japan and Europe. Participation in the program is limited to small companies as defined by the Small Business Administration.

“U.S. companies are proud of their American products and they know that brands can add value, build customer loyalty and play an increasing role in export expansion in the 21st century,” said USMEF Manager, Branded Programs Barbara Watson.

Branded funding allows participants to exhibit at international trade shows and U.S. domestic trade shows with large international attendances. Two of the companies participating in the program in 2007 were new to exporting and the branded funding went to their first activities directed at international customers in their targeted markets. One company’s activities also included product demonstrations in Mexico and another company’s activities involved a chef seminar in Germany.

All branded program participants are required to set measurable performance goals based on export sales to targeted markets. The companies also are asked to report on the number of trade contacts made at trade shows, and sales of new products launched with USDA Market Access Program (MAP) funds. These goals are set by the individual companies when their applications for funding are submitted.

The branded program is a small part of the larger coordinated USMEF effort that includes generic funding from USDA’s Market Access and Foreign Market Development programs, private industry funds and funding from the beef, pork, corn and soybean checkoffs to promote foreign sales of U.S. red meats.

The $5.4 million (14 percent) increase in exports by companies in the USMEF Branded Products Promotion Program over the past year was spread among the participants, whose 2007 sales figures ranged from $64,637 to $13 million. The latter figure was a $5.6 million, 75 percent jump in sales to Japan for the company after it attended Japan’s FoodEx trade show. Another company sold $8.3 million in products to the Middle East after attending the United Arab Emirates’ Gulfoods show.

Three companies participated in domestic trade shows — the National Restaurant Association and the Food Marketing Institute trade shows — both held in Chicago, Illinois. These prestigious events attract many international buyers and the companies indicated that they made contacts that should result in future sales.

After promoting products at Tokyo’s FoodEx, another company spokesperson told Watson that he now has a better idea of what Japanese buyers want, and that he acquired good trade leads at the show. Other companies attended trade shows in Hong Kong, South Korea, Mexico, Austria and Germany.

All of the companies indicated that they planned to participate in the program and future promotions again.