Audio: USMEF Hosts Caribbean Sales Team
Published: Aug 14, 2012
Last week USMEF hosted a group of meat industry sales representatives from the Caribbean nations of Aruba, Barbados, the Cayman Islands, St. Maarten and Trinidad and Tobago for a firsthand look the production, processing and merchandising practices that drive the U.S. beef, pork and lamb industries. USMEF’s primary objectives in hosting these sales reps were to introduce them to a wider range of cuts that will satisfy their customers’ needs and provide them with detailed information that will enhance their ability to convey the positive attributes of high-quality U.S. meat products.
Dermot Troy is a native of Ireland who now works for Island Supply in the Cayman Islands, a distributor that serves hotel and restaurant clients and is looking to expand into retail. In the attached audio report, Troy outlines his goals for the U.S. visit and explains how the knowledge he gained will help him better serve his clientele. He says most of the beef his company handles is already from the United States, but he is looking to expand the range of cuts in order to provide chefs with more economical menu options. He is also interested in expanding his offerings of U.S. lamb and pork.
Joy Elcock, who just began her sales position with Continental Foods in Barbados earlier this year, said the tour provided her with knowledge that will improve sales by helping her differentiate high-quality products and better address her customers’ needs.
Last week’s activities included a visit to the Meat Science Department at Colorado State University, where the group attended a “Meat 101” carcass breakdown session with Dr. Dale Woerner. They also enjoyed tours of Sylvan Dale Ranch near Loveland, Colo., a Five Rivers Cattle Feeding feedlot operation near Kersey, Colo., and the JBS beef and lamb processing plants in Greeley. Denver activities included a retail visit to Tony’s Meats for an up-close view of merchandising techniques for high-end retail cuts of beef, pork and lamb. Jay Harvey of Lombardi Brothers Meats provided the team with a detailed presentation on portion control, explaining how to effectively sell this concept to chefs and foodservice professionals.
The group concluded its tour with an extensive educational session conducted by chef Jay McCarthy called, “How to Sell Beef to Chefs.” Chef McCarthy demonstrated how underutilized beef cuts can add quality and variety to menus of restaurants and catering operations at very economical prices.
TRANSCRIPT:
Joe Schuele: This is Joe Schuele with the U.S. Meat Export Federation Report. Last week, USMEF hosted a group of meat industry sales representatives from the Caribbean region for a first hand look at the production, processing, and merchandising practices of the U.S. beef, pork, and lamb industries. Dermot Troy of Island Supply in the Cayman Islands, outlined his goals for the U.S. visit.
Dermot Troy: Customers of mainly large hotels, well, all hotels, restaurants do very little retail right now but hoping to get into some of that. Looking at market trends for future, obviously with what’s going on with the drought and everything right now, it’s a lot of concerns in markets for chefs and also looking to see what other cuts we can get into the chefs’ hands that they can use as subs for what they’re using now or as additional items they can put in their menus. Just bring something new to chefs that competitors aren’t bringing to the table for them.
Joe Schuele: Troy that while most of the beef his company handles is already from the U.S., he’s looking to expand the range of cuts. He’s also interested in expanding his offerings of U.S. lamb and pork.
Dermot Troy: We are very highly U.S. based in Cayman. Just based on the import issues, because we do have pretty strict guidelines, do a lot of New Zealand lamb right now; but maybe we could import more lamb from the states and looking to learn a lot more on pork – all cuts.
Joe Schuele: Joy Elcock, who just began her sales position with Continental Foods in Barbados earlier this year, had similar thoughts on the tour.
Joy Elcock: Our main customer base is restaurants and hotels, but we’re actually broadening that with the catering companies and even to the smaller vendors. I only joined the company in January of this year, so basically this is going to be a very large learning curve for me, learning development. I’m hoping to get from this enhancement in order to sell the product more efficiently and actually encourage the customers that we have to buy more and not particularly look at the price, but look at the quality, what they’re actually buying. It would just be to be able get more information and to just be able to look at cuts that you do, to just be able to utilize the meats we actually bring in and encourage them to buy more.
Joe Schuele: For more on this and other trade issues, please visit USMEF.org.
Dermot Troy is a native of Ireland who now works for Island Supply in the Cayman Islands, a distributor that serves hotel and restaurant clients and is looking to expand into retail. In the attached audio report, Troy outlines his goals for the U.S. visit and explains how the knowledge he gained will help him better serve his clientele. He says most of the beef his company handles is already from the United States, but he is looking to expand the range of cuts in order to provide chefs with more economical menu options. He is also interested in expanding his offerings of U.S. lamb and pork.
Joy Elcock, who just began her sales position with Continental Foods in Barbados earlier this year, said the tour provided her with knowledge that will improve sales by helping her differentiate high-quality products and better address her customers’ needs.
Last week’s activities included a visit to the Meat Science Department at Colorado State University, where the group attended a “Meat 101” carcass breakdown session with Dr. Dale Woerner. They also enjoyed tours of Sylvan Dale Ranch near Loveland, Colo., a Five Rivers Cattle Feeding feedlot operation near Kersey, Colo., and the JBS beef and lamb processing plants in Greeley. Denver activities included a retail visit to Tony’s Meats for an up-close view of merchandising techniques for high-end retail cuts of beef, pork and lamb. Jay Harvey of Lombardi Brothers Meats provided the team with a detailed presentation on portion control, explaining how to effectively sell this concept to chefs and foodservice professionals.
The group concluded its tour with an extensive educational session conducted by chef Jay McCarthy called, “How to Sell Beef to Chefs.” Chef McCarthy demonstrated how underutilized beef cuts can add quality and variety to menus of restaurants and catering operations at very economical prices.
TRANSCRIPT:
Joe Schuele: This is Joe Schuele with the U.S. Meat Export Federation Report. Last week, USMEF hosted a group of meat industry sales representatives from the Caribbean region for a first hand look at the production, processing, and merchandising practices of the U.S. beef, pork, and lamb industries. Dermot Troy of Island Supply in the Cayman Islands, outlined his goals for the U.S. visit.
Dermot Troy: Customers of mainly large hotels, well, all hotels, restaurants do very little retail right now but hoping to get into some of that. Looking at market trends for future, obviously with what’s going on with the drought and everything right now, it’s a lot of concerns in markets for chefs and also looking to see what other cuts we can get into the chefs’ hands that they can use as subs for what they’re using now or as additional items they can put in their menus. Just bring something new to chefs that competitors aren’t bringing to the table for them.
Joe Schuele: Troy that while most of the beef his company handles is already from the U.S., he’s looking to expand the range of cuts. He’s also interested in expanding his offerings of U.S. lamb and pork.
Dermot Troy: We are very highly U.S. based in Cayman. Just based on the import issues, because we do have pretty strict guidelines, do a lot of New Zealand lamb right now; but maybe we could import more lamb from the states and looking to learn a lot more on pork – all cuts.
Joe Schuele: Joy Elcock, who just began her sales position with Continental Foods in Barbados earlier this year, had similar thoughts on the tour.
Joy Elcock: Our main customer base is restaurants and hotels, but we’re actually broadening that with the catering companies and even to the smaller vendors. I only joined the company in January of this year, so basically this is going to be a very large learning curve for me, learning development. I’m hoping to get from this enhancement in order to sell the product more efficiently and actually encourage the customers that we have to buy more and not particularly look at the price, but look at the quality, what they’re actually buying. It would just be to be able get more information and to just be able to look at cuts that you do, to just be able to utilize the meats we actually bring in and encourage them to buy more.
Joe Schuele: For more on this and other trade issues, please visit USMEF.org.