For Immediate Release, September 4, 2002, 9 a.m. (MDT) | Until September 2001...

For Immediate Release, September 4, 2002, 9 a.m. (MDT)

Until September 2001, the Japanese beef market had shown the kind of steady growth that made it a key market for U.S. exporters – the volume of exports had more than doubled during the 1990s.

A robust and affluent market through much of the decade, Japan was more than a market for high-value muscle cuts, however. It also provided a value-added outlet for beef variety cuts that don’t sell well here in the U.S., such as beef tongue, worth about 10 cents a pound in the U.S. but selling for more than $4 a pound in Tokyo.

By the end of 2000, the U.S. was the leading supplier to Japan, shipping more than half a million metric tons of beef and beef variety meats, worth more than $1.8 billion. Japanese trade represented 47 percent of total beef export volume and nearly half of the total export value. While 2001 was expected to be somewhat less spectacular – due to high U.S. prices, a strong dollar and a weak Japanese economy – exports to Japan were expected to nearly equal the previous year.

Then, on September 10, 2001, the first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was discovered in the Japanese domestic herd. Mishandling of the crisis by Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) officials and two new cases sent the Japanese beef market spiraling. Restaurant owners reported sales off 60 to 80 percent; retailers said their sales were down 40 to 60 percent. And, despite the fact that 70 percent of all of the beef consumed in Japan was imported and only originated from countries that were – and are – BSE-free, imports were hit hard. Sales fell 30 to 50 percent through the first quarter of 2002.

Immediate Response

The U.S. Meat Export Federation responded immediately, using its “Food Safety Bureau,” launched the previous July, as a primary vehicle to monitor the media, correct misinformation and conduct a proactive safety information campaign. Then, USMEF conducted a Food Safety Seminar in Tokyo September 21 to remind Japanese traders of the success of the partnership between industry, government and science in insuring that U.S. meat products are safe and wholesome. A media conference, conducted in Tokyo October 5, was attended by more than 60 leading members of Japan’s consumer media and reinforced these same points.

Working with key industry partners, such as National Cattlemen's Beef Association and the American Meat Institute, USMEF helped Alfonso Torres, at the time the chief U.S. veterinary officer, to develop a statement for use on all beef products exported to Japan confirming that more than a decade of monitoring “has found no evidence of BSE or any other transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) in cattle.”

In addition, USMEF shifted more than $1.7 million from other projects to intensify its safety campaign. It developed and placed consumer advertising designed to reiterate key safety messages and reassure Japanese consumers that U.S. product is safe, as well as tasty and nutritious. This anshin, or “no anxiety,” campaign appeared for the first time over the October 13-14 weekend in publications with a combined circulation of more than 26.7 million. In addition, more than 30,000 retail and foodservice outlets participated in joint promotions that began later in the month.

Meanwhile, at its headquarters in Denver, USMEF conducted packer briefings, provided case-by-case support to facilitate trade and worked with APHIS to develop effective itineraries for APHIS and FSIS senior staff visiting Japan.

Then Came Aisareru

Through November and December 2001, as the anshin work continued, USMEF conducted consumer research, began laying plans for a direct consumer advertising campaign it estimated would cost $7-$8 million and sought a consumer advertising agency up to the task of developing and executing such an effort.

The new campaign would have to deliver messages of safety, taste and nutrition directly to Japanese consumers and this would take mean a unique approach. USMEF consumer research found that Japanese women – the key decision-makers when it came to family meals – had lost faith in government officials and retailers. Only 1 percent believed that a celebrity could be a valid source of safety information.

To meet this challenge, USMEF developed a “woman-to-woman” approach, featuring three American wives and mothers who shared the concerns of Japanese women about the safety of food they serve their families; these women also work in the U.S. beef industry. The first ads appeared in Japan’s two leading newspapers March 15. Magazine and television commercials started in April.

The ads featured: Gina Bellinger, president of Food Safety Net Services, Inc., a food safety testing laboratory in San Antonio, Texas; Leann Saunders, V.P. of Marketing and Communications for PM Holdings, LLC, a beef processor based in Kansas City; and Abbie Nelson, an Angus seedstock producer in Sacramento, California.

The campaign was paid for by reprioritizing existing programs in Japan and through special contributions of beef producers through their beef checkoff, state corn and soybean checkoffs and associations, packers, USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service and others in the industry who do business in Japan. With an original goal of $8 million to fund this campaign, USMEF raised more than $8.4 million.

This effort was called the aisareru, or desire beef, campaign and was designed to generate consumer confidence in U.S. beef, then build intent to buy and use it. Long term, the idea was to have U.S. beef identified as safe, nutritious, delicious and healthy. The theme also was carried by more than 150 Japanese companies through cooperative promotions in their more than 11,700 retail outlets and restaurants.

Early in its planning, USMEF felt so strongly that science had shown beef should be part of a balanced and healthful diet, that it believed food education should be included in the campaign.

Add Good Nutrition

Following its “woman-to-woman” campaign strategy, USMEF in July turned to Shalene McNeill, a registered dietitian with the Texas Beef Council and the mother of a seven-month-old baby, to present the message of how the nutrition in beef can be an important contribution to children’s physical and mental growth to Japanese consumers.

Through symposia in Osaka and Tokyo, the important role of beef consumption in the development of a child’s brain, body and mind was told to more than 350 participants, mostly nutritionists.

McNeill examined recent research that showed beef as an important contributor to child cognitive development, because it satisfies the necessary nutritional requirements needed for healthy children. While many in the audience realized that iron was something they needed in their diet, most found the zinc message new. And since iron and zinc are two nutrients not readily found in fish, the traditional protein source for the Japanese, the symposia helped the audience realize that beef is a great complement to the diet they are already consuming.

Combine Ingredients Into Celebrity Recipes

Also in late July, the aisareru message began to be carried “woman-to-woman” through the words and recipes of Yu Hayami, a Japanese wife and mother, who is widely-known to the target audience as a TV celebrity with an international background and cooking talents. She is a married homemaker with a professional career who has a 14-month old daughter and is expecting her second child in January.

At a media reception to launch the new cookbook, Yu demonstrated roast beef and beef pasta salad recipes on stage, while six other recipes from the cookbook were available for tasting. The 98-page color cookbook, "American Beef Cooking; Yu Hayami's Party Recipes and Daily Menu," features more than 70 recipes and is published by Magazine House, one of Japan’s leading publishers. The cookbook sells for 900 yen including tax (about $7.50) and is available in more than 3,000 book stores throughout Japan.

This month, “town hall” meetings with consumer and dietetic groups will be conducted to further extend messages of safety, wholesomeness and good nutrition. Cookbooks, consumer food safety publications and other information will be provided, along with a sampling session to let participants taste U.S. products.

The aisareru campaign will continue through the rest of 2002 and into 2003. With lower budgets, the effort will rely on public relations activities, in-store promotions and special events to carry the message. There will continue to be some TV ads, but far fewer than the campaign launched in April and ending this month.

Where Are We?

USMEF initially forecast that it would take two to three years for beef demand to return to pre-crisis levels. Even with the aggressive market intervention it proposed to initiate, USMEF still believed it could take 18-24 months for demand to return to “normal.”

Japan remains the No. 1 U.S. beef export market, but USDA statistics for 2001 show U.S. exports to Japan declined 6 percent in volume from the record year of 2000, at 513,563 metric tons, while value was off 11 percent to about $1.6 billion. And while the USMEF effort has helped promote a steady return to beef and an increase in U.S. market share during the first half of 2002, sales to Japan during the first half of 2002 remained well below a year ago. Worldwide, beef export sales were up 7 percent through June – driven by strong sales to Korea, Mexico, China and Russia – while beef variety meat exports were 18 percent lower, hit hard by a 52 percent drop in sales to Japan.

In 2001, according to revised USDA statistics, total U.S. beef exports were 1.274 million metric tons, with a value of $ 3.406 billion. Exports now account for nearly 13.4 percent of U.S. beef production on a wholesale weight basis.

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, corn, sorghum and soybean checkoff programs.

Click on the link for more information Japan Media Kit

– USMEF –