A 10-member pork buying team from Singapore and Malaysia is touring U.S. anim...

A 10-member pork buying team from Singapore and Malaysia is touring U.S. animal raising and meat production facilities Oct. 9-18 to better understand the attributes and availability of U.S. pork. The team is being led by U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) Association of South East Asian (ASEAN) Director Eric Choon.

After touring Iowa pork production locations, the team will head to Chicago for tours of pork retail facilities. The group will also meet with pork traders in Atlanta.

Team members are representatives of companies interested in foodservice and retail pork, manufacturing pork materials and offal. Several companies represented are looking for U.S. processed pork such as ham, sausages, bacon and deli meats.

“Both the restaurant and retail trade in Southeast Asia are more accepting of U.S. pork,” said Choon. He noted that 2006 sales to date of U.S. pork and pork variety meat in this region of the world increased 38 percent in tonnage and 53 percent in value over the same period of 2005.

Although Malaysia is basically a Muslim nation, there is demand for pork from the ethnic Chinese. This group is in the minority, but they generally have a higher disposal income. In Singapore, with an expanding tourism trade and a casino industry scheduled to start in 2-3 years, the foodservice trade is becoming more open to high quality imported meats.

The domestic pork industry in Malaysia is declining, and the country will need to import greater quantities in the near future. Through August 2006 the U.S. had exported 226 metric tons (mt) of pork and pork variety meat to Malaysia, worth $326,000. U.S. pork and pork variety meat exports to Singapore through August totaled 781 mt worth $1.9 million.

The U.S. Meat Export Federation 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, lamb, corn, sorghum and soybean checkoff programs.

– USMEF –