USMEF Meets with Visiting Hannan Buyers Team

A visiting team of 19 Japanese meat buyers representing Hannan Foods Group and its top customers met with USMEF staff in Denver today to receive an update on the U.S. red meat industry.

The visit to Denver was part of the group’s week-long tour of USMEF member meat production facilities as well as retail outlets and hotel/restaurant/institutional facilities. The tour was funded by Hannan, which annually purchases 681 million pounds of meat and has sales in excess of $2.1 billion.

“Hannan is one of the largest distributors of U.S. beef and pork in Japan and a long-time partner with USMEF,” said Dan Halstrom, USMEF senior vice president of marketing and communications. “They have a very strong interest in U.S. red meat and a very positive outlook for relations going forward, including the recovery of Japan’s economy after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.”

The Hannan representatives also expressed appreciation for USMEF’s coordination of the Japan Relief and Recovery Effort, which has served more than 100,000 hot meals containing U.S. beef and pork thus far. Hannan is one of the many corporations and organizations that USMEF has partnered with in Japan to process and deliver the food to displaced families across northern Japan.