On May 14, U.S. Meat Export Federation-Mexico organized a major educational a...

On May 14, U.S. Meat Export Federation-Mexico organized a major educational and entertainment event to honor Mexican mothers and to thank them for choosing U.S. beef and pork over competitors at the Belle Époque Metropolitan theater.

USMEF teamed up with two of the country’s largest retailers: Gigante and Comercial Mexicana, to launch this promotional program, which ran from mid-April to mid-May.

The retailers displayed posters in their 105 stores throughout the Greater Mexico City Metro area highlighting the Mother’s Day event and encouraging “moms” to stop by the meat department to buy their U.S. meat cuts. The message was reinforced by USMEF ads in key radio programs aimed at housewives and other targeted audience groups.

The theatre opened its doors at 8.30 a.m. for people to take their seats and pick up a U.S. Meat Bag that included: the print recipes to be cooked — a project funded by the Iowa Soybean Promotion Board — at the event, U.S. meat educational literature, and cooking utensils such as a salad bowl, a sauce bowl, and a tortilla warmer with the legends: “as fresh as a lettuce,” “for a good sauce, a good meat,” and “for a good taco, a good U.S. Meat cut,” respectively. Unilever’s Knorr brand of processed food products teamed up with USMEF to cover some of the expenses. About 2,200 people attended the event which ended at 1 p.m.

The educational / entertainment event included the following activities:

• An educational video featuring USMEF spokesperson, Ms. Luz Blanchet
• A brief history of Mother’s Day
• A Mother’s Day Song
• A presentation on the benefits of including animal protein in a balanced diet by MEFMx nutrition adviser, Ms. Julieta Ponce
• The video “Historia de la Carne de Res (Meat History)”
• A cooking demo, “Scallops in Green Sauce”
• An illusionist show, and
• A Mariachi band, a Mexican traditional music genre, to wrap up the event.

The educational part of the event included a video featuring Ms. Blanchet, which showed various scenes shot at the supermarket on how to select a good cut, and why U.S. meat should be mom’s choice par excellence in every dish she cooks. Afterwards USMEF nutrition adviser, Ms. Ponce, shared many health tips with the audience and stressed the importance of eating a balanced meal with U.S. beef and pork as a regular item in the family menu.

Gilberto Lozano, USMEF-Mexico Director, thanked moms for their preference at the supermarket, and for taking time off their busy schedules to learn more on the activities carried out by USMEF-Mexico throughout the country to bring healthy, nutritious, juicy and delicious U.S. beef and pork cuts to every family dinning room. Lozano also thanked Gigante, Comercial Mexicana, and Knorr for being part of this event to honor moms.

·   Activities conducted by the U.S. Meat Export Federation are specially designed to:

·   Enhance U.S. beef and pork’s image among leading Mexico City retailers and with targeted consumer groups

·   Reinforce goodwill with USMEF retail partners and their meat departments

·   Increase sales of U.S. meat cuts. Preliminary figures provided by the retailers showed increased sales — Gigante’s U.S. Beef skirt sales expanded 42 percent

·   Goodwill among housewives. On their way out, many mothers approached Mr. Lozano and staff to thank them for the invitation and for the great time they had. They also asked to be invited to future promotions organized by USMEF, and particularly in next year’s Mothers’ Day event should USMEF repeat it

·   Create a database for future contact

In 2002, Mexico became the No. 1 destination on a volume basis for exports of U.S. beef and beef variety meat overtaking Japan. U.S. beef exports to Mexico broke the record for the sixth successive year. The United States exported 349,900 metric tons (mt) of beef and beef variety meats to Mexico, 12 percent more than in 2001 at a value of $854 million, 10 percent up on the previous year.

Mexico is the second biggest market for U.S. pork exports. In 2002, the U.S. exported 217,909 metric tons of pork and pork variety meat (a 7 percent increase) valued at more than $252 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, corn, sorghum and soybean checkoff programs.

-- USMEF --